LinkMachineGo

[tv] The Fonz Jumps the Shark … from YouTube – the origin of the phrase Jumping the Shark … ‘The phrase reached the height of its influence in the early 21st century. As it became more widely known, many fans began to consider the phrase over used. In particular, the phrase has become used by some to describe any development which they don’t like on a show. This has caused some viewers to conclude that “jump the shark” has itself jumped the shark.’

[comics] The Further Adventures of Li’l Bruce Wayne … Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog on a long forgotten Batman comic … ‘It is notable, however, as being the first published comic book work of writer/artist Frank Miller.’

[42] What on earth is 42? … BBC News on the Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything … ‘The answer can be interpreted in two ways. One is that it is a bad joke, implying that there simply is no answer, no meaning, no sense in the universe, and you would be no worse off if you jumped into the nearest black hole. But the other interpretation is that the joke was wise. It shows that seeking numerical answers to questions of meaning is itself the problem. Digits, like a four and a two, can no more do it than a string of digits could represent the poetry of Shakespeare.’

[life] Possessed – fascinating online documentary about obsessive hoarders … ”POSSESSED’ enters the complicated worlds of four hoarders; people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The film questions whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism. When does collecting become hoarding and why do possessions exert such an influence on our lives?’ [via Waxy]

[conspiracy] Or perhaps: New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn’t Shot … ‘After 11 years of painstaking research, Musashi uncovered testimony from anonymous eyewitnesses who claimed that unopened packets of duck sauce and soy sauce were hastily removed from Air Force One after the assassination. According to the book’s findings, the extremely high levels of monosodium glutamate combined with the stress of mediating an intense international ballistic-missile crisis caused Kennedy’s systolic pressure to mount to the point where the right rear quarter of his cranium “shot clean off.”‘

[funny] The Onion on Kennedy’s Assassination … ‘Kennedy slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons – President Shot 129 Times…’

[comics] Big Brother With a Bleeding Heart — interesting blog post critically looking at Alan Moore’s work on V for Vendetta and Watchmen … ‘Rereading this really crystallized for me what I think is the biggest problem with Moore’s writing — his weakness (to paraphrase Borges) for appearing to be a genius. Moore’s an extremely smart writer and plotter, and he fancies himself a metaphysician and political seer. As a writer, he tends to have all the answers, and while that can look pretty amazing when enmeshed in the story, when you take a step back, the discordant cacophony of all the begged questions starts to get a little irritating. Evie occasionally yells at V and tells him he’s a pompous asshole who cares more about puzzles and quotations than about human beings. Of course, Evie always backs down and accepts that V only tortured her because he loves her…but it’s hard not to feel that Moore is loading the dice. It’s Moore, after all, who sits behind that mask; it’s him who’s rigged the game.’

[apollo] The Moon Museum — Apparently, there is a small museum of art on the Moon hidden in the leg of the Apollo 12 lander … ‘[Andy] Warhol’s contribution, which is obscured by the thumb above, is described as “a calligraphic squiggle made up of the initials of his signature. Actually, it’s a drawing of a penis.’ [via Kottke]

[wikipedia] Nicholson Baker on The Charms of Wikipedia … ‘Without the kooks and the insulters and the spray-can taggers, Wikipedia would just be the most useful encyclopedia ever made. Instead it’s a fast-paced game of paintball. Not only does Wikipedia need its vandals-up to a point-the vandals need an orderly Wikipedia, too. Without order, their culture-jamming lacks a context.’ [via Metafilter]

[books] 50 Crime Writers To Read Before You Die … ‘We wanted to compile a list of writers we had, jointly and severally, loved. We wanted to include writers like Dashiell Hammett, who brought something new and exciting to the genre; like Elmore Leonard, who turns an old trick in it with incomparable style; and like Poe, who invented it. We did not, except incidentally, take into account popularity.’ [via Metafilter]

[calendar] Leap day – 29 leap facts for February 29th … ‘You have a 1 in 1461 chance of being born on February 29th. The odds are a lot higher if your parents have sex on May 29th the previous year.’

[windows] Find As You Type for Internet Explorer — great little utility that adds Firefox’s powerful and simple way of finding text in a web document to Microsoft’s web browser.

[buffy] The Buffy guide to the Internet – 1997 style — amusing look-back at the portrayal of technology and the internet from an episode of Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer … ‘Buffy attempts to vanquish the demon by dragging the ‘Willow’ folder to the Trash, but all that happens is a very pixelated full-screen image of Moloch warns her to “Stay away from Willow”. Well, Buffy isn’t going to take instructions from some demonic computer virus, so they immediately try to find her, and expose a much bigger difference between 1997 and today. Buffy physically goes to look for her in the computer lab, and Giles and Xander are left to phone Willow’s house. You remember the days when you used to phone up a building and hope someone was in it, rather than call their mobile, right?’ [via Pete Ashton]

[comics] More Alan Moore — unpublished excerpts from an interview in the March edition of Word Magazine … ‘In real life, Graham Greene based Harry Lime in The Third Man on Kim Philby, who’d been his handler in MI6. When Philby defected in 1963,the newspaper headlines read PHILBY IS THE THIRD MAN, but they were simply reiterating a literal truth from a work of fiction. Philby had been the third man all along. And then… Philby was named after Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. Kipling lived in Broadstairs which is where John Buchan wrote The 39 Steps, near the real 39 steps down to the beach. So it all ties together. There’s something about it all that’s more than coincidence. It drives you mad after a while.’ [thanks Fraser]

[tv] Watchification — a sister blog to Speechification – curating the best TV from the BBC’s iPlayer, YouTube and other sources.

[google] Google circa 1960 … ‘Mail to: Google Search Request. […] Please allow four to six weeks for results.’

[quotes] Top 10 Quotes Against Work … Charles Bukowski: ‘It was true that I didn’t have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?’ [via Reddit]

[funny] Funny Cinderblock Sale Post — another great posting from Craigslist … ‘Now listen, we’re all busy people here. You want the blocks? Come get the fucking blocks and give me one dollar for every block you take. How fucking hard is that?’

[religion] 20 Tacky Religious Products Guaranteed to Anger God … ‘As you’re no doubt aware, the most common complaint about nativity scenes is they’re too prejudiced against non humans. After all, who are the dogs supposed to pray to? Luckily, some intrepid inventor out there took a stand and made the Dog Nativity Scene featuring Mary, Joseph, some wise men and the Messiah Himself, all as partially clothed canines.’ [via GussetBLOG]

[comics] The War on Fornication — Peter Bagge comic strip on sexual politics in America at the moment.

[comics] Warner Bros revs up live action Akira … ‘The Times suggests that Akira purists may not be entirely happy with the fact that the story is set in New Manhattan, rather than the futuristic Tokyo of the original Manga classic.’

[london] All in a Day’s Work — the blog of a London Cab Driver … ‘A lady I took to Camberwell last night gave me a twenty and two tens for a £22 fare and I gave her one of the tenners back. “You’re honest” she said thanking me. “It’s the only way to be” I replied.’ [via Time Out]

[books] Youth of Today — Charlie Stross wonders about the what his future readers will be like … ‘There have always been cameras in shops and schools and other public places, although there are more of them than there used to be. Old folks grumble about privacy, but really, you’re being watched wherever you are. If you don’t like it, get a hoodie.’

[diana] They’re all guilty? ‘Definitely.’ Fayed gets his day in court — Mohamed Al Fayed testifies at the Diana Inquest …

Shortly after Tony Blair and Robin Cook had been added to Fayed’s list of conspirators, Richard Horwell QC, a note of incredulity rising in his voice, said: “So that’s MI5, MI6, the CIA, the DGSE – the French intelligence service – Judge Stephan … the French ambulance service … Lord Condon, Lord Stevens … Mr Burgess, the Surrey coroner and Lady Sarah McCorquodale?” He could have added several more: two bodyguards; the French pathologists; a photographer called James Andanson, who was allegedly driving the white Fiat Uno that brushed against the Mercedes shortly before it crashed in the Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31 1997; Henri Paul, the chauffeur; a reception clerk at the Ritz hotel; Sir Michael Jay, the then British ambassador; Sir Robert Fellowes, the Queen’s private secretary, who was Diana’s brother-in-law; Lord Mishcon, her solicitor; and – of course – Prince Philip and Prince Charles. Time and again, Fayed answered: “Definitely.”

[wwrfd] What would Richard Feynman Do? … ‘Is there a bongo drum around?’ [via Interconnected]

[comics] The Last Man Exits — the New York Times covers the conclusion of Y: The Last Man … ‘A stand-in for Ampersand, named Zuni, was posing for photographs beside a beverage cooler in the shape of R2-D2. “I jokingly told the store I would do this event if they had a live monkey,” said Mr. Vaughan, who slipped Zuni’s trainer a $5 tip. Ms. Guerra, 36, was particularly enchanted by the animal. “I’ve never seen a live monkey before,” she said. “I cheated and based Ampersand on my cat.”’

[movies] Happy Groundhog Day! — Jaime Zawinkski wonders how many days Bill Murray re-lived in Groundhog Day … ‘Between days #21 and #22, he memorized the entire Jeopardy show, which would take at least a few viewings. It’s possible he did that while learning piano, or French.’

[comics] If I Have To Explain It… — Evan Dorkin blogs a scan of the King and Kirby section of the Manhattan Phone Book … ‘Coincidence? I think not!’

[funny] Oh Fuck, The Internet is Here… [via More(ish)]

[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…’

[doco] True Films – 200 Documentaries You Must See Before You Die — a PDF E-Book on documentaries written by Kevin Kelly now available as a free download.

[comics] V Vs Scientology — interesting comment on the Forbidden Planet Blog about V for Vendetta masks used at recent protests against Scientology … ‘V masks have been a tremendous bestseller for us for a while, now I am starting to understand why!’

[tv] C.J.’s Catchphrases — a collection of sayings from C.J. on Reginald Perrin … ‘I didn’t get where I am today by everything smelling of a Bolivian unicyclist’s jockstrap!’ [via As Above]

[space] An astronaut from NASA describes the smell of space: ‘At first I couldn’t quite place it. It must have come from the air ducts that re-pressed the compartment. Then I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces. It is hard to describe this smell; it is definitely not the olfactory equivalent to describing the palette sensations of some new food as “tastes like chicken.” The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch…’

[funny] The Fail Blog … ‘This is a site for sharing all things that FAIL with the world.’ [via Sore Eyes]

[comics] Annotations to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier — from Jess Nevins … On a parody of the London Tube Map included in the book: ‘Many puns here: Maida Jump, Court Short, Turnham Blue, Colouring Inn, Tooting Bottom, Eating Broadly, Rothernot, Pen Stroke Newington, Upper Etching, H.B. Row, Ink Staines, Whiteout City, etc. Also no wonder than Mr Moore’s line would include “Chin Topiary” “Barking” and “Very Cross”…’ [via Feeling Listless]

[comics] Coloring Comics, Old School — fabulous explanation from Todd Klein about colouring comics in the 70’s and 80’s … ‘I think the 1970s were probably the nadir of paper quality at DC. Comics from the 1940s and 50s had much better paper, and still look it today if well kept, but the company began cutting paper quality to save money some time after that, and when I started it was pretty awful. So, as you can see, any colors other than the primary ones were likely to come out mud.’

[sex] Map of Sexual Fetishes, Categorised and Interlinked … I suspect this isn’t as comprehensive infoporn as it seems… but I know now what shrimping is so it was worth a look. :) [via Qwghlm]

[comics] On Collecting Comics … some useful advice from Eddie Campbell.

[comics] Chapter 1 of Criminal Online — from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips … ‘Whenever things begin to fall to pieces, I think of my father.’ [via The Comics Reporter]

[comics] A Wonderful Alan Moore Song — from MJ Hibbett who also did another favourite of mine Hey Hey 16K … ‘Well the entire shop went silent as everybody realised… a generations hero had caught us all buying shite.’ [via Blah Blah Flowers]

[comics] A Conversation with Writer Brian K. Vaughan — interview with the writer of Y: The Last Man as the long-running comic series concludes (link contains serious spoilers) … ‘People have been asking me for so long, “what’s it feel like to be done?” And I was like, not until I hold it in my hands will it feel like it’s going to be over. Actually, I haven’t read it yet, so there’s probably still another undiscovered stage of death. I’ll be angry over the ad placement or something.’

[funny] Out of Context — funny YouTube video of some out-of-context movie scenes … ‘My mommy hurt my head.’ [via Waxy]

[csi] How Gil Grissom got his name: ‘…series creator Anthony E. Zuiker mentioned that the character was originally intended to be named Gil Scheinbaum, but after Petersen was cast, Zuiker decided he was ‘insufficiently Jewish’ for the name and along with Petersen decided to rename the character for astronaut Gus Grissom, and Gil because of one of the actor’s hobbies, fishing.’

[blogs] What I Killed Today — the sad blog of a veterinary technician detailing what animals they had put down that day … ‘An emaciated ferret who had been fighting an auto-immune disease.’ [via Warren Ellis]

[comics] Alan Grant’s Edinburgh Lecture — Forbidden Planet Blog reports from a lecture the veteran Judge Dredd / Batman writer gave in Scotland. On Dredd: ‘Alan had been re-reading some of his own early work – something he says normal weekly and monthly comics deadlines don’t leave much time for him to do, he rarely re-reads his own work – in preparation for the talk and is still surprised and a little depressed at how much of what he and Wagner wrote ‘as a laugh’, taking then-current social trends and blowing them up to ridiculous proportions (literally in the case of Two Ton Tony Tubbs), has gone from being satirical humour (something 2000 AD and Dredd in particular has always been good at and something I’ve always relished about it) to being rather too close to the bone (the League of Fatties was hilarious in the early 80s, now he reads about childhood obesity epidemics in Britain and America and suddenly the joke’s not as funny anymore…’

[food] Dip Once or Dip Twice — a food microbiologist examines double dipping at parties as practiced by George in Seinfeld … ‘On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip. Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.’ [via Kottke]

[comics] Alan Moore in the 1982 BJ and the Bear Annual — scans of some early professional work from a UK TV annual.

[funny] Fuck Planet Earth — funny spoof of BBC’s Planet Earth series on YouTube. [via Sore Eyes]

[comics] A List Of How David Banner Got Angry …

47. Being stuck in a cab in New York rush hour traffic – “You don’t understand,… I have to be there by 4.00!” – “Hey, mac, it’s rush hour, we ain’t gettin’ there til five, so relax.” – “BUT I HAVE TO BE THERE BY FOUR!!!”

Why I can’t use Facebook anymore — or rather, why using Facebook is like getting every annoying round-robin email from the last 10 years again … ‘1 how evil are you invitation’ [via Reddit]

[tv] The Wire: Four Seasons in Four Minutes — I’ve only watched a couple of minutes of this to avoid spoilers but looks like a great summary … ‘McNulty has a Drink.’

[comics] For Sale on eBay: Queen and Country #1 from Greg Rucka and Steve Rolston.

[comics] The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy — all-new blog from one of my favourite comic artists.

[pants] Paxman raises smalls problem with M&S — Jeremy Paxman on the awful spectre of widespread male gusset anxiety … ‘[Jeremy Paxman] is so concerned about the declining standards of men’s underwear that he has written to Sir Stuart Rose, the chief executive of M&S, detailing his “anxiety” about its gussets, which he said no longer offered “adequate support”. “Like very large numbers of men in this country, I have always bought my socks and pants at Marks & Sparks,” he wrote. “I’ve noticed that something very troubling has happened. There’s no other way to put this. Their pants no longer provide adequate support. When I’ve discussed this with friends and acquaintances it has revealed widespread gusset anxiety. I do feel that someone should take up this mighty battle. The other thing is socks…”‘

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