LinkMachineGo

[tv] Grace Dent’s TV OD — Dent’s blog on this year’s Big Brother was the best thing about the show – Radio Times now have her doing a column on TV every week … On You Are What You Eat: ‘Small Scottish woman chases fat people with a box of poo until they cry and eat salad.’

[911] Meet the No Planers — The New Statesman visits with David Shayler who has become one of the the UK’s prominent 9/11 conspiracy theorists. [thanks Phil] …

‘These 9/11 truth campaigners merely add a supposedly scientific gloss to already existing conspiracy theories, trying to make the ridiculous seem respectable. In the process, they actually do a disservice to “historical truth”. History gets reduced to a mysterious force beyond our control, and politics – real politics – is imagined to be the preserve of unknown, faceless puppet-masters whom we can never hope to influence. And the rest of us are reduced to the status of helpless spectators, searching amid the rubble of 9/11 and the aftermath of 7/7 for signs of truth and meaning.’

[headlines] Some interesting Evening Standard Headlines on Flickr: Headlines fron 1986 and Gay Bondage Classes on the NHS (from 1998) …

(My Evening Standard Headline Project continues here.)

[comics] Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. — incredibly, this is a real shop in NYC which is a front for a Children’s Writing Center …‘We can help with your Nemesis Problem.’

Jonathan King on YouTube — King is posting a series of autobiographical videos to YouTube – perhaps inspired by Geriatric1927. [via linkbunnies.org]

[tech] The USBCell — what a neat idea – an AA battery with a built in USB port to charge. [via Technovia]

[tech] Robert X. Cringely on Apple’s iTV Strategy: ‘Virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier once told me, “you can have enough money and you can have enough power, but you can never have enough EXPERIENCE.” Jobs understands this better than almost anyone else and the pieces he’s put together are all aimed at giving us an experience and allowing us to share that experience with others in a large and grand way.’

[comics] Indie Spinner Rack Issue #49 — great podcast interview with Dave Sim. Much discussion on recent projects like Siu ta (so far) and his blog. What shines through is his knowledge and deep love of comics – well worth a listen.

[email] Why email is addictive (and what to do about it) — interesting article about dealing with compulsive email checking … ‘Checking email is a behaviour that has variable interval reinforcement. Sometimes, but not everytime, the behaviour produces a reward. Everyone loves to get an email from a friend, or some good news, or even an amusing web link. Sometimes checking your email will get you one of these rewards. And because you can never tell which time you check will produce the reward, checking all the time is reinforced, even if most of the time checking your email turns out to have been pointless. You still check because you never know when the reward will come.’ [via Yoz]

[comics] The Alan Moore Sounds Project — an attempt to collect and reprint on the internet all Alan Moore’s long lost “The Stars My Degradation” strips which were printed in Sounds Magazine between 1979 and 1983.

[comics] Superherofight.com … a site which uses the wisdom of crowds to decide if The Hulk would beat The Thing in a fight. [thanks Randy]

[funny] YouTube: The Mother of All Movie Trailers … ‘In a world where DEATH can make you DEAD…’ [more…]

[music] The iPod’s Achilles Heel? It’s er… Reader’s Digest — Orlowski on Zune and iPods. ‘…in business terms, the iTunes Store is a deceptive chimera. Pakman has a joke he likes to illustrate it. “The iTunes Music Store buyer buys 25 songs in the first year, 15 in the second year, and in the third year, the battery has died, so you have to go out and buy a new iPod,” he says.’

[comics] Dave Sim’s Blogandmail — Dave Sim has a blog! … ‘Hi and welcome to my Blog. I’m actually going to try to stay current with this on a daily basis, having noticed that I spent way too much time saying to myself while answering my escargot mail “I really should make a note of that and let the Yahoos know about it” and never, you know, actually doing it.’

[vids] Viral Video Chart … ‘The world’s most talked about videos…currently tracking YouTube, MySpace and Google Video’ [via Waxy’s Links]

[wikipedia] The Stormtrooper Effect … ‘The name originated with the armed Imperial Stormtroopers in the original Star Wars trilogy, who, despite their considerable advantages of close range, overwhelming numbers, professional military training, full armor, military-grade firepower, and noticeable combat effectiveness against non-speaking characters, were incapable of seriously harming the protagonists.’

[comics] Bill Sienkiewicz has a blog … ‘number one: i exist. a lot of folks thought i was simply a triple word score in scrabble, m crossed with “alan smithee, the non existent director”. no siree.’ [via Warren Ellis]

[crime] What it’s like to be a Homicide Detective in Chicago — from the Best of Craigslist … ‘Murder is a brutal, ugly thing. 80 or 90 percent of the time it involves narcotics or alcohol in one way or another. Crime scenes can be physically revolting when you first start working murders. Decomposed bodies will always be revolting. One particular murder has given me a life long aversion to eating ribs.’

[myspace] Some MySpace profiles I’ve spotted recently: Mitchell and Webb (plus Super Hans, Mark and Jeremy), Ed Brubaker and Geoff Johns.

[comics] Joe Matt’s MySpace … ‘And last night, I learned how to “instant message” (or IM as we kids say) someone for the very first time. I would like my medal now, please.’ [via Journalista]

[london] Dave Gorman is stopped and searched by the Police whilst taking a night-time picture of Battersea Power Station for his photostream on Flickr … ‘”Oh flickr!” said the WPC, stopping her form-filling for a moment. “I’ve got photos on there. Photos of my wedding from 7 weeks ago.” “Really?” I asked. “It’s good isn’t it? Oh… and congratulations on 7 weeks ago.” “Thanks,” she said with a smile. “So… have you ever been arrested?” “Err…. no”‘

[comics] Brendan McCarthy on Solo #12: ‘My initial pitch was for a humorous story featuring Dr. Manhattan’s massive blue penis and balls from The Watchmen… I liked that when he became a giant, his privates also grew enormously huge. I could imagine being inside a tall apartment block and being astonished as a giant blue monster sausage swayed by outside the window… Of course I wondered if it would now be OK to view The Martian Manhunter’s green J’onn Thomas, for example… But this was a case of only highbrow ‘arthouse’ nudity being allowed (“Glenda Jackson’s tits syndrome”) and it was rejected straight away. So I was getting an education in getting to know the boundaries of what is permissible in a DC Comic these days…’

[911] The Hunt … Declan Walsh searches for Osama bin Laden … ‘To find Osama bin Laden, try Peshawar’s smugglers’ bazaar on the road to the Khyber Pass. Walk past the small mountains of almonds and lemongrass and green tea. Turn at the stacks of duty-free TVs and cheap cosmetics. Stop at the stalls with the topless women. Down a cramped alley, bearded shopkeepers squeezed behind tiny counters offer a fine selection of fanciful sex products. “Delay sprays” carry the promise of lingering pleasure. For the discerning lover there is Lovely Curves, a product that claims to be a “bust-developing cream”. If all else fails, there is plenty of knock-off Viagra at knock-down prices. Worry not about the quality: “Made is Germany” (sic) reads the label.’

[books] Ellroy’s Dark Places — interview with James Ellroy … ‘Ellroy recently moved back to Los Angeles, where he is completing the final instalment of his “Underworld USA” trilogy, which began with American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand. Keenly anticipated, the novel deals with America between 1968 and 1972, but that’s just about all he’ll reveal. “It’s going very well,” he says. Any idea when it’s going to be finished? “Not the slightest.” What is it about? “America, 1968 to 1972.” Does it have a title? “Yes, but I’m not telling anyone.” ‘

[apple] Why the iPod is losing its cool … ‘[iPod] Sales are declining at an unprecedented rate. Industry experts talk of a ‘backlash’ and of the iPod ‘wilting away before our eyes’. Most disastrously, Apple’s signature pocket device with white earphones may simply have become too common to be cool.’

[podcast] Buffy – In Our Own Time — a podcast where Buffy is discussed in the style of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time … ‘I began to think about those conversations you have with your friends about stuff you all know about, the stuff of pop culture, not high culture and I thought how much fun it would be to replicate those kinds of chats in an In Our Time format. So it’s not professionals talking about an area of expertise, it’s enthusiastic amateurs, talking about something they love. With the passions, conceits and errors that entails. I thought of calling it In Our Own Time to signal its amateur status.’ [via Tom]

[movies] The Queen Trailer — it’s probably a very British thing but I’m really looking forward to watching Helen Mirren’s performance in a film about the Queen’s reaction to the death of Diana.

[comics] Siu Ta (so far) — new project from Dave Sim – a biographical comic about Canadian actress Siu Ta.

[911] Unity — Zefrank on 9/11. ‘With no particular thought in my head I started crying…’

[blogs] I’ve enjoyed the first episodes of Radio 4’s Meet the Bloggers and especially the one hour interviews in Real Audio with Anna Pickard, Annie Mole, Petite Anglaise and Zoe from My Boyfriend is a Twat.

[politics] Tom Watson: Minister leaves government to spend more time with his blog … ‘It is with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must leave the Government.’

[comics] Alan Moore interviewed by Stewart Lee — the interview is on YouTube – Moore discusses his unconventional religious beliefs with one of the writers of Jerry Springer: The Opera. The video is embeded after the jump in this post… [more…]

[comics] 2004 Interview with Ed Brubaker — by Tom Spurgeon … ‘I remember the first day Vertigo came out and Nirvana was huge at the time, I remember thinking, “I could do a book for Vertigo. It would be like ‘Prez: Smells Like Teen President.'” The book actually came out just like three or four months after Kurt Cobain killed himself. I remember trying to get them at the last minute to change the name. And Lou’s like “No, that’s a cool name.” And I was like, “Oh man, I am so screwed.”‘

[comics] Random Batman Facts: ‘Q: Pirates vs. ninjas? A: Batman.’

[storage] Box.net/Lite — useful website for storing files up to 10MB for downloading or displaying on your site.

[blog] That Mitchell and Webb Log — blog covering the comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb. [via As Above]

[comics] Andrew Rilestone sums up Dave Sim: ‘Cerebus the Aardvark is a comic. The writer, Dave Sim, underwent a conversion and or nervous breakdown while writing it. He now claims to be a Jew, a Christian and a Moslem simultaneously, adopting a gnostic synthesis of the three religions in which God is in conflict with a demiurgic female principle which may or may not be identical with the YHWH of the Old Testement. He also thinks that the world is run by a cabal of Marxist Feminist Moslem Homosexualists. Many people think that he is not very sensible.’

[books] Cool Tools on the book ‘Moving Heavy Things’ … ‘Applied Sloth – As stated in the stagehand’s axiom: “Never lift what you can drag, never drag what you can roll, never roll what you can leave.” Creativity germinates in indolence, and the cleverest people are often the laziest: they are always looking for an easier way. The easiest way is often the simplest, most direct, and the best way.’ [via Limbic Nutrition]

[tv] E4 Sopranos Ad on YouTube — a nicely done parody of the opening credits of the Sopranos. [via Tom]

[tv] Till Death Do Us Part — the Guardian takes a look at the Sopranos as Season 6 begins in the UK … ‘Many fan pages in cyberspace claim Chase has planted within the drama a systematic symbolism involving food. These web-heads note that when a character eats or breaks eggs, death almost always follows: Tony, for instance, accidentally steps on a carton just before ordering the murder of his cousin. Chase, when I interviewed him recently, insisted that these people were talking out of a hen’s behind: there is no intentional omelette sub-plot. Dr Melfi, however, would perhaps conclude that all this egg stuff is welling up for some reason from Chase’s subconscious.’

[comics] The Comics Journal Relaunches Journalista — one of the best comic blogs returns reading as good as ever after a long break.

[books] AN Wilson is a Shit … ‘It is, at first glance, a tantalising insight into the love life of one of the nation’s most celebrated poets. The letter from Sir John Betjeman to his mistress must have seemed almost too good to be true when it fell into the lap of AN Wilson, the late poet laureate’s biographer. It was so convincing that Wilson included it in his new book about Betjeman as evidence of a hitherto unknown “fling”. But it was indeed too good to be true. It now seems Wilson was the victim of an elaborate hoax. The poet, who was born 100 years ago today, never penned the note. The telltale sign that the letter is a joke is that the capital letters at the start of each sentence spell out “AN Wilson is a shit”…’

[blogs] Radio 4’s Meet the Bloggers — the BBC does a radio show about blogs. The first programme had interviews with Anna and Annie of Little Read Boat and London Underground Tube Diary.

[tv] Jim Rockford’s Answering Machine — a list of the messages left for Jim Rockford on the opening credits of The Rockford Files … ‘Jim, this is Cal of the Leave The Whales Alone Club. Our protest cruise leaves from the pier Saturday at 3 AM. The whales need you, Jim.’ [via Metafilter]

[comics] A Short Interview With Ed Brubaker — on Criminal – his new comic with Sean Phillips. ‘…in the first arc, while pulling the heist, our gang uses the war on terror to help create a diversion. And I think that little part, reminding readers of the reality around them, adds something. But I also think that this world we’re living in right now, with the war in Iraq feeling a lot like Vietnam, the government wire-tapping us and looking at our library records, the internet being used for identity theft, and this sort of creeping fear and paranoia that more and more people have, this “Big Brother is watching and manipulating” feeling that’s so much in the air, helps create an atmosphere that’s very conductive for crime fiction.I mean, when the system is this screwed up, on all ends, who doesn’t want to read about people who live outside of it, or who fight it, or who just hate it as much as them? It kind of feels like the 70s and 80s again, really, but just with a lot better technology.’

[comics] PDF of DMZ #1 — the first issue of Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s great comic about a young War Reporter dropped into war-torn New York in the near-future. [via Warren Ellis]

[comics] Morrison In The Cave — Newsarama interview with Grant Morrison on Batman …

‘I want to see a Batman that combines the cynic, the scholar, the daredevil, the businessman, the superhero, the wit, the lateral thinker , the aristocrat. He terrifies the guilty but he has great compassion for the weak and the downtrodden and will lay his life on the line for anybody who’s in trouble. He’s a master of yoga and meditation who has as much control over his body and his feelings as any human. He has a wider range of experiences than most people will dream of in ten lifetimes. This is not a one-note character! So, while I won’t pretend we all live on Sunnybrook Farm, I don’t think its appropriate – particularly in trying times – to present our fictional heroes as unsmiling vengeance machines. I’d rather Batman embodied the best that secular humanism has to offer – a sour-faced, sexually-repressed, humorless, uptight, angry, and all-round grim ‘n’ gritty Batman would be more likely to join the Taliban surely?’

[blogs] Blogger is 7 … Ev: ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’

[comics] Tales of the Black Freighter: Marooned — a reconstruction of the Pirate Comic from Watchmen … ‘Waking from nightmare, I found myself upon a dismal beach-head, amongst dead men and the pieces of dead men. Bosun Ridley lay nearby. Birds were eating his thoughts and memories. Reader take comfort from this: In Hell, at least the gulls are contented.’

[tv] Naked Keith Chegwin hits the Heights of ‘Memorably Rotten’ TV — a list of the Top 10 Worst TV Programmes. The list is:

Naked Jungle .. Cheggers Plays Cock – NSFW Picture.
Minipops .. Pan’s People for Paedophiles.
Triangle .. 80’s Glamour on a North Sea Ferry.
Quickfire Balls .. Bingo On TV.
Annie’s Bar .. Seems totally unmemorable rather than awful. YMMV.
Wright Here, Wright Now .. I suspect the compiler of this list supports Spurs.
Love Thy Neighbour .. Racist 70’s Sitcom.
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends .. Is this really that awful?
Through The Keyhole .. LLoyd Grossman is immensely annoying.
A Year In Provence .. The BBC and John Thaw don’t mix?

[comics] 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed … ‘Reason 281: Frank Miller’

[comment] Charlie Brooker’s Columns on Comment is Free — On Dark Matter: ‘There are millions of people who essentially consist of dark matter; unknowable swaths of the population I have never encountered and will never understand. People who watch Emmerdale, for example. Emmerdale is Britain’s third most popular soap opera – second, actually, when EastEnders is having an off day. It attracts something in the region of 5 million viewers, which means approximately one in 12 Brits regularly tunes in. Yet I’ve never actually met anyone who watches it.’ [via linkbunnies.org]

[blog] Indexed — amusing graphs and diagrams which tap the same vein as Gapingvoid’s cartoons on the back of business cards …

a amusing pie chart diagram about people who never fart

[books] What I Have Read Since 1974 — a list of every book one man has read – from The Digging-est Dog to The Great Influenza.

[funny] MP3 of a Psychiatric Office Answering Machine … ‘If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be transferred to the mother ship. If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a small voice will tell you which number to press. If you are a manic-depressive, it doesn’t matter which number you press because nobody will answer.’

[LMG]

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