1 June 2006
[telly] Paul Daniels’ eBay Transactions — a blog forensically tracking Paul’s activities on eBay … ‘On April 26th 2006, Paul Daniels purchased a book for only 22p! This has got to be one of Paul’s best ebay experiences ever. So, he paid 88p for postage taking the total to £1.10 and the book looks pretty ropey… it’s a 1964 pot boiler called Jealousy…’ [via Mr Biggs]
2 June 2006
[con] The Perfect Mark — the inside story of a Nigerian 419 Con … ‘An enduring trait of Nigerian letter scammers — indeed, of most con artists — is their reluctance to walk away from a mark before his resources are exhausted. On February 5, 2003, several days after the checks were revealed as phony, after Worley was under siege by investigators, after his bank account had been frozen, after he had called his partners “evil bastards,” Worley received one more e-mail from Mercy Nduka. “I am quite sympathetic about all your predicaments,” she wrote, “but the truth is that we are at the final step and I am not willing to let go…”‘
[comics] In praise of … Tintin — from today’s Guardian Leader … ‘Journalists envy Tintin as a reporter who never feels pressure to file a story, but everyone else can just enjoy the plots. The early books are of their period, stereotyping Africa and Africans but, from the Blue Lotus on, Tintin sides with the oppressed, fighting Nazis, communists and capitalists alike.’
3 June 2006
[tv] BBGossip.com 
— one stop shop for Big Brother updates, gossip and chat.
— one stop shop for Big Brother updates, gossip and chat. 5 June 2006
[comics] All-Suck Batman and Robin — a review of Miller and Lee’s All-Star Batman … ‘The thing is, the book IS immensely enjoyable. It’s like watching a really fascinating train wreck. I simply cannot tear myself away from reading it, and I’ve gotta tell you, I eagerly await the next issue as much as any of my favorite books.’ [via Metafilter]
6 June 2006
[comics] New Comics Blog: Blog@Newsarama.
[pi] The Mountains of Pi — the 1992 New Yorker article which influenced Darren Aronofsky’s Pi about two mathematicians who build supercomputers in their Brooklyn flat. ‘…the digits of pi may ramble forever in a hideous cacophony, which is a kind of absolute perfection to a mathematician like Gregory Chudnovsky. Pi looks “monstrous?” to him. “We know absolutely nothing about pi,” he declared from his bed. “What the hell does it mean? The definition of pi is really very simple — it’s just the ratio of the circumference to the diameter — but the complexity of the sequence it spits out in digits is really unbelievable. We have a sequence of digits that looks like gibberish.” “Maybe in the eyes of God pi looks perfect,” David said, standing in a corner of the room…’
7 June 2006
[news] Ten things I learned by reading the Daily Express — one man reads the Daily Express so you don’t have to … ‘7: There is insufficient police brutality.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
8 June 2006
[history] Britain celebrates the Queen’s Silver Jubilee — on this day in 1977 … ‘All things considered, it was not a good day for the anti-monarchists. “We were going to have a proper meeting and then march to Buckingham Palace to proclaim the republic,” the organiser of one stuff-the-jubilee rally, Terry Liddle, observed. “But unfortunately it was too cold and only five people turned up.”‘
9 June 2006
[tech] 18 Days of Reckless Computing — How to Kill a Dell Computer in under three weeks … ‘I ask friends and relatives to forward me their nastiest-looking spam. In response, I start getting emails from my mom with discomforting subject lines like “Dating for kinky people!”‘
10 June 2006
[comics] The Diary Of Ralph Dibny … the weblog of the superhero formerly known as Elongated Man … ‘It’s been a couple of weeks since the unpleasantness with the alternate earths and the killing and the shouting and all and my therapist thinks I should start keeping a journal of my inner thoughts and feelings. Well screw you Dr Willis. If you were any kind of therapist I wouldn’t respond to a serious global emergency by sticking a goddamned gun in my mouth. I blame you for the last three suicide attempts, you quack.’
[fruit] Innocent Drinks Blog — a blog from the popular Smoothies Company … ‘We need somewhere to share our thoughts and to give other people a chance to comment on what we’re doing. We need somewhere to post our pictures and tell our stories. We need somewhere to let off steam. We hear that there are these amazing things called blogs that help you do all of this.’
12 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#76 – #100) …
- Rom the Spaceknight.
- Dave’s Long Box.
- The 1989 Batman Movie. directed by Tim Burton.
- Winker Watson from The Dandy.
- Mek-Quake.
- Animal Man #26 by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog.
- Mike McMahon.
- Diesel Sweeties.
- Dave McKean.
- Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks.
- Captain Haddock.
- John Romita Jr.
- The V.C.s
- DR and Quinch by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.
- Green Arrow.
- Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu by Doug Moench and Various Artists.
- Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Micheal Avon Oeming.
- The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
- The Watchmen Smiley Face Badge.
- The Mighty Tharg.
- Jack Chick’s Comics.
- Robert Crumb’s Cross-hatching.
- The Original Superman Movie.
- DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli.
- Chopper (aka Marlon Shakespeare).
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#51 – #75) …
- Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker.
- Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
- The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
- Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
- John Garrett.
- The Time Machine (from 2000AD #324) by Alan Moore and Jesús Redondo.
- The Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy and Role-Playing Club comics by Evan Dorkin.
- Philip Bond.
- All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
- Neilalien.
- Eightball #22: Ice Haven by Dan Clowes.
- Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
- General Zod as played by Terrance Stamp.
- Comics Letterers — Tom Frame, John Constanza, John Workman and Tom Orzechowski.
- Issue 6 of Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III.
- John Wagner.
- Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.
- The 600 page novelisation I did of the Judge Dredd story Apocalypse War which is now sadly lost to history.
- scans_daily on LiveJournal.
- Barry Allen.
- The smell of old comics.
- Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly.
- Moon Knight by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.
- Walter the Wobot.
13 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#26 – #50) …
- Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III and Jay Geldhof.
- Charley’s War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.
- Hellblazer #27 – Hold Me by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
- The Batman TV Series.
- Shadowplay: The Secret Team by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
- Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
- Judge Dredd.
- Stray Bullets by David Laptham.
- Alan Moore on Swamp Thing with Various Artists.
- Carlos Ezquerra.
- Ghost World by Dan Clowes.
- Evan Dorkin.
- We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
- Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon by Hergé.
- Brian Bolland.
- American Flagg by Howard Chaykin.
- Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (the Manga and the Film).
- Warren Ellis.
- DC comics from the 60s with go-go checks on the cover.
- The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kyle Baker.
- The Incredible Hulk.
- Hellblazer.
- America by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil.
- Lex Luthor.
14 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#1 – #25) …
- Alan Moore.
- Grant Morrison.
- From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
- Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
- Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli.
- Cerebus by Dave Sim and Gerhard.
- St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist.
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
- 2000AD (between 1977 and 1989).
- The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé.
- Steve Bell.
- The Playboy / I Never Lived You by Chester Brown.
- Dan Clowes.
- Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Various Artists.
- Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- Hate by Peter Bagge.
- It’s A Good Life if you Don’t Weaken by Seth.
- “Gaze into the Fist of Dredd!”
- Peep Show by Joe Matt.
- Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau.
- The Alec McGarry Stories by Eddie Campbell.
- Daredevil.
- Rupert the Bear Annuals (Probably the first comics I ever read).
- Brendan McCarthy.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.
15 June 2006
[gtd] The Perfect Apostrophe — amusing podcast where Merlin Mann discusses his procrastination whilst abortively attempting to write an O’Reilly Life Hacks book.
16 June 2006
[comics] D’Blog of ‘Israeli — the blog of comic artist D’Israeli … ‘Want to know what being a comic artist is about? Packing, that’s what. I always start out with the intention of making some great new thing that’ll redefine the medium, but in the end, it’s always comes down to packing, cramming it all in.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
17 June 2006
[gtd] 43 Folders Podcasts — an archive of Merlin Mann’s audio accompaniments to the the 43 Folders website.
19 June 2006
[wikipedia] Un_Wiki — watch crap get deleted from Wikipedia in real time … ‘So I’m told that Scotty doesn’t know? Matt Damon sings this song? Octavio has a really hot girlfriend and gets none?’ [via Haddock]
20 June 2006
[bb7] Grace Dent’s Big Brother Blog — well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’
— well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’ 21 June 2006
[tv] Scaryduck on Ben Elton: ‘I’m a pretty confident chap. So confident, in fact, that I am willing to lay a wager. And it is this: “I bet you ANY MONEY that at some stage before the next UK General Election, Ben Elton will stand up and declare his allegiance to David Cameron and the Conservative party.” I tell you, it’s going to happen…’
22 June 2006
[comics] The Myth of Superman — Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers on Superman … ‘Other heroes are really only pretending: Peter Parker plays Spider-Man; Bruce Wayne plays Batman. For Superman, it’s mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent that’s the disguise — the thing he aspires to, the thing he can never be. He really is that hero, and he’ll never be one of us. But we love him for trying. We love him for wanting to protect us from everything, including his own transcendence…’
23 June 2006
[google] The Devil’s Guide to Google — a dummies guide to fucking with Google … ‘Buy 2 million cheap domains, heavily interlink them, and wait until they go up in Google’s ranking. Start using them to sell Viagra.’
[comics] Comic row over graphic Peter Pan — Great Ormond Street Hospital isn’t happy Alan Moore sexing up Peter Pan’s friend Wendy … ‘The Lost Girls, which shows Wendy in erotic trysts and being observed by paedophiles, is the latest work by Alan Moore, the British graphic novelist behind V for Vendetta. He said that his novel was inspired by Peter Pan but he would not seek permission to use the Wendy character. “I don’t see that you can ban anything in this day and age,” he said.’
[comics] ‘Sex acts’ Wendy is Panned — CNN on Great Ormand Street and Lost Girls … ‘Stephen Cox, the hospital’s spokesman, said in a telephone interview Friday that it has not taken legal action against Moore and is was waiting to see whether the author will contact the institution to discuss its objections.’
[comics] Hospital worry at “porn” take on Peter Pan’s Wendy — Reuters on Lost Girls … ‘Moore insists on calling the work “pornography”, while Publishers Weekly, in an article earlier this year, said it involved “fetishism, incest and even a touch of bestiality, as well as a whole lot of sexual activity involving minors”. It is due to be published in the United States in August.’
24 June 2006
[ebay] Mathematicians snipe to win on eBay — the New Scientist on the best strategy to win auctions on eBay … ‘[Mathematicians] saw a mathematical pattern in the bidding behaviour of bidders and derived a simple power-law equation to describe this. This power law reflects the fact that bids become more frequent as the end of an auction approaches. The researchers used this equation to determine the best time to make a winning bid. They conclude that sniping is the best approach.’ [via Kottke]
[comics] Alan Moore’s Erotic Lost Girls — some pages from Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls [NSFW].
25 June 2006
[comics] Rich Johnson on Lost Girls: ‘But I can’t see this being published, with Alan Moore’s current media profile, with the characters of Alice, Dorothy and Wendy used in this was (not to mention the coincidental Harold Potter) without someone kicking off. Am I the only one who can see “PEDO PAN” as a front-page headline of the News Of The World? I’ve already been asked for comment by the BBC which is planning a news feature in a couple of weeks.’
[comics] Rich Johnson Reviews Lost Girls: ‘This comic has driven me to complex thought, to patterns and ideas staying fixed in my own mental space that will stay with me. I will quote this book in conversation, I know it. I will see others through it, I will filter experience through it, it has affected me as much as any fiction can.’
26 June 2006
[tv] Mr Noseybonk in the Greenhouse — kids TV in the 80’s. I’d completly forgotten about Mr Noseybonk. Probably for the best… [via Venusberg]
27 June 2006
[comics] Metafilter on Lost Girls … ‘So is this really a viable business model? Take a children’s classic, toss in some pornography, generate some canned controversy and then PROFIT!? I’ll be watching closely to see how much Moore rakes in on this. If this works then I can finally start shopping around my The Secret Life of Tiggers.’
[comics] John Byrne and his Forum discuss Lost Girls … Byrne: ‘This thread is officially too depressing. That there are people who would defend Moore on any grounds just adds to my overall sense of having wasted 30 years of my life. End of thread.’
28 June 2006
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Evel Knievel … ‘On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed a single $100 dollar bet on the blackjack table, which he lost, stopped by the bar and got a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by several members of the Caesar’s staff, as well as two scantily clad showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel received a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.’
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Alfred Henry Hook — I took a look at this because I wondered what happed to Hooky from Zulu after the Battle of Rourke’s Drift … ‘In the film Zulu, Hook is portrayed as an insubordinate malingerer and drunkard who only comes good during the battle. In fact he had been awarded Good Conduct pay shortly prior to the battle, and reports also suggest he was a teetotaller.’
29 June 2006
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: No True Scotsman. ‘…a common fallacy in politics, in which critics may condemn their colleagues as not being “true” liberals or conservatives because they occasionally disagree on certain matters of policy. It comes in many other forms – “No decent person would” – it is argued “support hanging/watch pornography/smoke in public”, etc. Often the speaker seems unaware that he/she is, in fact, coercively (re)defining what the phrase “decent person” means to include/exclude what he/she wants and NOT simply following what the phrase is already accepted as meaning.’
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Seinfeld … Jason Alexander on George: ‘…the true root of [George’s] character was realized upon a conversation between Alexander and David earlier on in the series, in which Alexander questions a script saying, “This could never happen to anyone and even if it did, no human being would react like this” to which David replied, “What do you mean? This happened to me once and this is exactly how I reacted!”‘
30 June 2006
[comics] Alan Moore TV interview from 1987 — watch young Alan Moore flipping his hair back all the time as Gaz Top interviews him about Swamp Thing and plugs the recently released (at the time) Watchmen.