22 June 2009
Random YouTube Insult Generator … ‘I found the journey of the protagonist both humorous and enlightening. Just kidding. This video is nut sack sweat.’ [via Metafilter]
[curtis] Charlie Brooker on Adam Curtis’ latest projects …
TV industry! Here’s a little bombshell for you. From now on, all of Curtis’s work will be produced first and foremost for the internet. It will be hosted at bbc.co.uk/adamcurtis (coming soon). Go there to find a trailer for It Felt Like A Kiss. An hour-long cut of the whole thing will be placed on the site on the last day of the Manchester International Festival (MIF). It will also host his next two projects: “A long thing about our complicated relationship to the Congo over the last 100 years and how our idea of nature as a sacred yet terrifying realm has risen up during that same time.” That will be followed by a piece about “the political and cultural ideas that underlie the internet – and the idea that we are all linked in an interconnected web – out of which can come a new form of democracy.”
[tv] Adam Curtis’ Blog … the BBC documentary maker behind The Power of Nightmares and The Way of All Flesh starts blogging … ‘This is a website expressing my personal views – through a selection of opinionated observations and arguments. I’ll be including stories I like, ideas I find fascinating, work in progress and a selection of material from the BBC archives.’
21 June 2009
Useful Flickr Tip: How to find the original Flickr Photo URL and User from a Static Flickr Image URL/Permalink [via more(ish) : meg’s scrapbook]
17 June 2009
[tv] Grace Dent is on Twitter … if you’re into Big Brother you really should be following her … ‘god my heart was a bit broken by that fake hide and seek game. #bb10’ [link]
[people] Frank Sinatra Has a Cold … a classic 1965 profile of Frank Sinatra by Gay Talese …
‘It was obvious from the way Sinatra looked at these people in the poolroom that they were not his style, but he leaned back against a high stool that was against the wall, holding his drink in his right hand, and said nothing, just watched Durocher slam the billiard balls back and forth. The younger men in the room, accustomed to seeing Sinatra at this club, treated him without deference, although they said nothing offensive. They were a cool young group, very California-cool and casual, and one of the coolest seemed to be a little guy, very quick of movement, who had a sharp profile, pale blue eyes, blondish hair, and squared eyeglasses. He wore a pair of brown corduroy slacks, a green shaggy-dog Shetland sweater, a tan suede jacket, and Game Warden boots, for which he had recently paid $60. 16 June 2009
[funny] Dr Manhattan is… Awesome.
15 June 2009
[twitter] A reminder: LinkMachineGo is available on Twitter [also: Friendfeed, Livejournal and old-school RSS]
[blogs] Scott Rosenberg asks: Who Was The First Blogger? (and surprisingly comes up with a satisfying answer).
14 June 2009
[books] Ask MeFi: What books do people proselytize about? … ‘I think these books are types that suggest a single, clear lens through which the world and all life experience can be viewed. When certain, perhaps impressionable or at least eager people read these books and take the theses as gospel,’getting religion,’ as it were, that this author has hit on the EXACT TRUTH about things, they can’t stop talking about them to others.’
12 June 2009
[people] The Learjet Repo Man … an amazing article about a man who recovers jets and other big ticket items … ‘A good super repo man has a skill set that’s some mad hybrid of cat burglar, F.B.I. agent and con artist. And there’s real danger that comes with the job, not just ticked-off homeowners wielding baseball bats. According to the American Recovery Association, there are, on average, one or two repo-related deaths a year…’
11 June 2009
[bdj] Belle de Jour is on Twitter … ‘Off to discover whether the local Somerfield is as crap as it looks from the outside. And maybe source a takeaway instead.’ [link]
10 June 2009
[computers] The Register makes a good case for the Minuteman 1’s nuclear missile guidance computer being the first truly portable computer … ‘We should celebrate this wonderful nuke. Oh sure, the computer system couldn’t run “Wordstar” or a game of “Colossal Cave,” like the Osborne 1, but how many computers do you know that can destroy the world? That feature offers some serious LAN-party cred right right there. And with a three-stage, solid-propellant rocket build in, travel is a breeze.’
9 June 2009
[comics] Grant Morrison on Batman and Robin … ‘It’s always important to remember that Gotham isn’t some derelict hellhole, it’s the most larger-than-life, exciting city in the world. It has to be like New York plus or no-one would want to live there, so we’re emphasizing the excitement and color and buzz of the place, as well as its more familiar gloomy and gargoyle-y shadows. Gotham is where Crime becomes Art, after all.’
8 June 2009
[tankman] Behind the Scenes: A New Angle on History … a stunning photo of the Tiananmen Square Tank Man shot from a different angle in 1989.
[batman] The Mutation of the Batman Logo – 1941 to 2007 … animation showing how Batman’s logo has changed over time.
7 June 2009
[happy] Happiest People Ever! … a blog collecting photos of really shiny happy people (not).
5 June 2009
[sex] Lesson’s Learned … Twenty-Five lessons learned by Diamond Geezer about Sex during the last quarter century … ‘You should always know where your towel is.’
4 June 2009
[funny] Han Solo, P.I. … Star Wars done in the style of Magnum P.I.’s opening credits. [via Waxy]
3 June 2009
[tv] An explanation of the Main Puzzle from the First Episode of the Adventure Game … childhood nostalgia overload :) … ‘Ping-Pong Balls!’ [via more(ish) : meg’s scrapbook]
31 May 2009
[retrocomputing] ZX81 Webserver … Amazing – a Sinclair ZX-81 on the internet.
28 May 2009
[comics] All American hero … Howard Chaykin Interview … Chaykin on American Flagg and the 1980’s: ‘The US was in a trough of political conservatism with Reagan, who was a fraud, thief, liar and a cheat. I also wanted to do a fun, violent, sexy, dirty story with a strong political underpinning and a streak of hysterical humour. I was laughing at the edge of the precipice. I was such a nihilist back then.’
[comics] For Sale on eBay: Maxx #1 by Sam Kieth.
27 May 2009
[radio] Jon Ronson On … complete MP3 collection of Ronson’s BBC Radio 4 series.
26 May 2009
[space] First TV Image of Mars Ever Was Made With Crayons … ‘The people at the JPL were so excited to receive the images that they couldn’t wait for them to be processed by the lab’s imager. As the first picture was beamed down as a stream of 8-bit numbers-each point indicating a brightness point-they thought of a quick way to get an image straight away: Print the numbers indicating brightness in paper strips, put them together, and color them with pastel crayons.’ [via As Above]
[press] The Daily Mail Dictionary … ‘Cancer: a life-threatening disease caused by everything, and cured by everything else.’ [via Moreish]
25 May 2009
[comics] Jess Nevins annotations for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century 1910 … ‘Panel 6. “Misplaced memorials.” I trust one of my British readers can fill me in on what Moore is referring to. Is there a misplaced memorial at King’s Cross? There are memorials to veterans of World Wars One and Two-anything else? “Forgotten fires.” I’m assuming this is a reference to the King’s Cross fire on 18 November 1987, which killed 31 people in the King’s Cross St. Pancras station. I’m not particularly sure why this counts as “forgotten”-even I, American that I am, knew about it. (Is the King’s Cross fire memorial plaque in the station misplaced somehow?)’
24 May 2009
[funny] Glanced At: She just forgot … [more…]
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