[web] Friendster Password Emails Spark Site Hack Fears / Friendster Wipes Data Slate Clean … if you had a Friendster account back in the day it’s probably worth deleting what remains of it now … ‘Multiple users have reported receiving spam emails containing their Friendster password in plain text.’

[comics] Excerpt from “Irredeemable: Dave Sim’s Cerebus” … part of a longer-form essay in Comics Journal #301 … ‘Sim may well be a wackjob or an acid casualty, but he is also, I would argue, one of the greatest living cartoonists.’

[tv] How to be… a Top Gear presenter … ‘The key attribute required of a Top Gear presenter is unerring devotion to the idea of the car as history’s most perfect vehicle. This devotion must be so irrational that, if anyone dares to suggest something is better than a car – perhaps a boat, or a train, or a BMX, or a bobsleigh, or a jet fighter – you must feel compelled to immediately challenge one to a race.’

[internet] Social Fax Machines … James Shelley On Social Media … ‘Imagine that you were one of 300 people with fax machines. Each one of you program your respective machines to carbon copy every fax to all 299 other machines. Then, together, you go about your day diligently reading the faxes that pour in.’ [via Sore Eyes]

[politics] Margaret Thatcher’s 1959 UK General Election Campaign Leaflet For Finchley … We recently purchased a house in Finchley, and during the renovation my wife found this lurking underneath some floorboards… ‘A vote for any other person is a vote for a Socialist Government. Do not shirk from this issue.’

[comics] Garen Ewing: from a Golden Age to a rainbow orchid … missed this when it was first published: comic creator Garen Ewing interviwed by Mondoagogo … ‘One of my very favourite comics was, and is, Charley’s War, but I’m not certain that I feel particularly influenced by Pat Mills – but I’m sure it must be there in the mix to some degree. What child that grew up in the 1970s and went on to make their own comics doesn’t have Pat Mills in there somewhere?!’

[books] The 100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books … ‘After keen debate at the Guardian’s books desk, this is our list of the very best factual writing, organised by category, and then by date.’

[books] Famous Opening Lines From Novels Updated For The Modern Age … ‘Call me Ishmael_65.’

[books] Kevin Kelly On When Books Disappear: ‘We are in a special moment that will not last beyond the end of this century: Paper books are plentiful. They are cheap and everywhere, from airports to drug stores to libraries to bookstores to the shelves of millions of homes. There has never been a better time to be a lover of paper books. But very rapidly the production of paper books will essentially cease, and the collections in homes will dwindle, and even local libraries will not be supported to house books — particularly popular titles. Rare books will collect in a few rare book libraries, and for the most part common paper books archives will become uncommon. It seems hard to believe now, but within a few generations, seeing a actual paper book will be as rare for most people as seeing an actual lion.’

[comics] Mike Sterling: ‘I’m still kind of weirded out that I just saw a major Hollywood movie that featured Kilowog as a character. This is not the future I was expecting.’

[religion] Go Look: Draw A Circle Around The One God Loves Most.

[funny] The Stages Of Sleep …

[press] Will The Guardian bring down Rupert Murdoch? … ‘It is, frankly, an amazing story. The indomitable patriarch who will shortly be forced to plead age and infirmity; his headstrong son whose eagerness to do what his father would have done will shortly doom him; the loyalists who will unquestionably fall on their swords; an upending of the moral landscape in which the miscreants once happily functioned; and the virtuous newspaper, perhaps the last great newspaper, with a last great editor, who, long waiting for and never believing it would get such an opportunity, now has the devil in its sights.’

[docu] The Loving Trap … perfectly done parody/hatchet job of Adam Curtis. [via Meg]

[twitter] How Decisions Made by Twitter Founders in 2006 Led to Anthony Weiner’s Dickish Demise … Steven Levy looks at how design decisions and Anthony Weiner’s reckless use of Twitter led to his downfall …

Weiner needed a more private channel of communication for flirtations up to and including pictures of his package. Since the women followed him already, he could send them direct messages. But to receive their replies, he had to follow them in return. Only then could he engage in flirting or sexual repartee.

Weiner seemed not to realize the extent to which Twitter’s rules still made him vulnerable. The women were publicly listed among those accounts he followed. Since he only followed around 200 people, these new followers seemed out of place among the politicians, journalists, and celebrities on his list. It was all too easy for a political foe to notice that Weiner was adding young women (and in at least one case, a porn star) to his followers soon after a public exchange.’

[movies] Blade Runner Updated … What if Deckard’s computer was running Windows XP? [via Forbidden Planet Blog Log]

[comics] “When I first heard about virtual reality I thought: is there any other kind?” … Alan Moore interview from the New Statesman … Moore on Books: ‘I accept that things change and that the future of reading might be in the form of a Kindle or an iPad, but somehow I tend to think that the book is perfectly adapted. It’s like a shark; sharks haven’t evolved in millions of years because they don’t need to. They’re really really good at being sharks I think the same is true of a book.’

[life] Go Look: Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus Statistic Visualized.

[text] Bacon Ipsum … Generate a meaty Lorem ipsum … ‘Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet tri-tip flank tenderloin, pork chop beef tail cow pork belly rump venison ribeye pork pig. Pastrami strip steak shank salami hamburger venison, pig flank beef pork loin rump. Bacon meatball tongue, rump sirloin corned beef shoulder. Shankle tri-tip shank strip steak, pancetta sausage corned beef shoulder pork chop tenderloin. Jerky beef chuck, beef ribs jowl t-bone brisket ham hock venison salami sirloin ground round pork belly bacon. Pig ham hock pork chop pancetta tongue salami. Sausage meatball short loin, pastrami bacon ham boudin venison.’

[dailyfail] Istyosty.com … A handy proxy website which allows you to visit and link to the Daily Mail without giving them any traffic or accepting any advertising they may send your way whilst browsing.

[crime] The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist … Another must-read stranger-than-fiction true crime story … ‘If Wells did as he was told, the instructions promised, he’d wind up with the keys and the combination required to free him from the bomb. Failure or disobedience would result in certain death. “There is only one way you can survive and that is to cooperate completely,” the notes read in meticulous lettering that would later stymie handwriting analysis. “This powerful, booby-trapped bomb can be removed only by following our instructions… ACT NOW, THINK LATER OR YOU WILL DIE!” It seemed that whoever planned the robbery had also constructed a nightmarish scavenger hunt for Wells, in which the prize was his life.’

[comics] Unpublished Tintin: The Hugged Face … by Dan Hipp … [via The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log]

[ilike] A Near Perfect Guardian Headline … ‘Adam Curtis To Make TV Project Inspired By The Wire’

[funny] Arty Bollocks Generator … Create an instant artistic mission statement with no effort … ‘My work explores the relationship between acquired synesthesia and emotional memories. With influences as diverse as Wittgenstein and John Lennon, new synergies are crafted from both simple and complex meanings…’

[lifehacks] F.lux … nice little software programme that automatically adjusts the colour of your computer display for the time of day – less harsh at night, brighter during the day. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

[antilife] Go Look: Obedience to the Law is Freedom … (ALL IS ONE IN DARKSEID!)

[apocalypse] Bullets That We’ve Dodged As A Species … Philip Greenspun provides a list of predicted catastrophes that didn’t happen … ‘Famine – Environmentalist Lester Brown predicted imminent famine in 1974, 1981, 1984, 1989, 1994, and 2007, in a 1967 book titled Famine, 1975!, and by MacArthur genius Paul Ehrlich in a 1968 book The Population Bomb (repeated, but without a predicted date, in a 2008 book, The Dominant Animal).’ [via Jorn Barger]

[books] How to spot a psychopath … Excerpts From Jon Ronson’s new book …

Over the three-day course in Wales, my scepticism drained away entirely and I became a Hare devotee. I think the other sceptics felt the same. He was very convincing. I was attaining a new power, like a secret weapon. I felt like a different person, a hardliner, not confused or out of my depth as I had been when I’d been hanging around with Tony in Broadmoor. Instead, I was contemptuous of those naive people who allowed themselves to be taken in by slick-tongued psychopaths.

My mind drifted to what I could do with my new powers. If I’m being honest, it didn’t cross my mind to become some kind of great crime fighter, philanthropically dedicated to making society a safer place. Instead, I made a mental list of all the people who over the years had crossed me and wondered which of them I might be able to expose as having psychopathic character traits. Top of the list was AA Gill, who had always been very rude about my television documentaries and had written a restaurant column in which he admitted to killing a baboon on safari.

“Item 8 Callous/lack of empathy,” I thought, and smiled to myself.’

[comics] Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol Run Began 22 Years Ago …

[comics] Murderer’s Eyes … more Psychiatric Tales from Darryl Cunningham.