[comics] Jonathan Ross on Watchmen … ‘But what makes this a genre-transcending bona fide masterpiece is that, alongside the pulse-pounding action and suspense, the soap-opera style romantic dilemmas and the story of some good but misguided people trying to apply simple remedies to complex maladies, Moore and Gibbons also manage to deliver a devastating critique that cuts to the very heart of the pitiful, timid male fantasy that is the superhero genre at its purest and worst: muscular men and busty women in tight costumes solving all the world’s problems with a well-placed punch or a blast of super-breath.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]

[comics] Comica 2008 Schedule … ‘London’s International Comics Festival returns to the ICA and other venues, including an exhibition in the ICA Concourse Gallery, between November 14 and 26, 2008.’

[space] Ten Mysteries of the Solar System … ‘Why does Uranus rotate on its side? Strange planet is Uranus. Whilst all the other planets in the Solar System more-or-less have their axis of rotation pointing “up” from the ecliptic plane, Uranus is lying on its side, with an axial tilt of 98 degrees.’ [via Robot Wisdom]

[comics] Alan Moore CD Covers … a collection of the covers of Moore’s musical output from the Glycon blog (a must-visit site for anybody interested in Alan Moore rarities.)

[tv] In “Stop the Pigeon” – the cartoon with Dick Dastardly and Mutley – what was it that the pigeon was carrying that was so important that it had to be stopped? … ‘I remember from a book I owned as a child that eventually Dick Dastardly got hold of the pigeon’s bag and found it to contain birdseed.’

[funny] ‘I Am Under 18’ Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet … from the Onion … ‘In an unprecedented and historic event Monday, the “I Am Under 18” button, an Internet security device which if selected restricts access to websites featuring adult content, was clicked for the first time ever. “I knew I could simply claim to be over 18 and continue onto my desired destination, but I also realized that I would have to live with that lie for the rest of my life,” said local resident Garrett Kinley, 17.’

[blog] Ask LMG: Does anybody know what happened to the Linkbunnies blog? It’s been unavailable for at least a couple of weeks and I guess there are a couple of readers scratching their heads wondering what happened… (Update: The Answer)

Go Watch: Massive Landslide Caught on Webcam … via Robotwisdom … [more…]

[movies] The Way Movies Were in the Seventies …

[blogs] Sad Guys on Trading Floors … ‘Turning the economic crisis into one of those clever internet memes.’

[comics] Top 10 graphic novels by Danny Fingeroth … ‘For my top 10, I decided to take the crème de la crème, the graphic novels that I most enjoyed. These are graphic novels, some famous, some less well-known, that do what all great literature does, in that they give you such a pleasurable experience while reading that you’re simultaneously eager to uncover the ending, yet also dreading it, knowing that the experience will then be over.’

[funny] I guess this has happened to us all at least once: You Fell Asleep Watching A DVD. [via Waxy]

[twitter] Stephen Fry’s Twitter … ‘Golly, crumbs, heckamighty and all the powerful legal swears and cusses Twitter will allow…’

[gmail] How to Embed Images into a Gmail … useful tip and I always forget how to do it! … ‘Drag your mouse across the image so the whole image gets selected or highlighted (it would turn dark to indicate that it is successfully highlighted/selected). don’t miss that part. then while it is selected/highlighted, right-click your mouse over it, then from the menu which appears, choose COPY. (It works in Firefox too. You just have to make sure you “COPY” NOT “COPY IMAGE”.)’

[london] In Case Of Civil Unrest … pavement stencil from the Wooster Collective

[banks] The Money Meltdown … nicely-done one page website explaining the credit crunch.

[comics] Brown Now! … a comic interview with Chester Brown looking at his libertarian political beliefs. [via Mondo A-Go-Go]

[fun] The Sound Effect Generator … fun webpage from the Surrealist … [via Neilalien]

biff ^{*HONK HONK*} tink-piffle ni izzzz brrrring izzzz brrrring

[comics] Alan Moore Knows the Score … the Guardian art critic on Moore …

I wouldn’t want to make him sound respectable. Moore’s comics are utterly mad. He believes in the occult and is a practising Magus. In Black Dossier his characters end up in a mystic alternate reality which he seems to be claiming is a real place, not a fiction. In fact he appears to believe that fictional personae have their own existence in some spiritual realm he can access through magic. Now you’re disturbed. Well, we’re always being told art should disturb. Moore makes artists like the Chapmans look like the middle-class entertainers they are. He’s a real force of imagination in a world that is full of fakes.

[comics] The 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs … ’22. A Selection of Comics That Interest You That You Can’t Explain To Anyone Else — Every great comics collection needs something inexplicable and odd to it…’

[useful] A Checklist for Landing a 747 Jet … ‘Turn on the autobrakes when the plane starts descending.’ [via Kottke]

[dawkins] Richard Dawkins Hate Mail …

[movies] Trailer to Synecdoche … Charlie Kaufman’s new film … ‘There are millions of people in the world. And none of those people is an extra. They’re all leads in their own stories.’ [via Fimoculous]

[comics] Grant Morrison’s Favourite Superman Issues and Moments … On Superman vs. Muhammad Ali: ‘How could you forget that one? Because it had to happen! I had to travel many, many miles to find that comic. I remember getting it and it didn’t quite live up to the hype. But the more and more the years go by, the better that comic gets [because of] the contortions they go through to make sure Ali wins.’

[comics] Concordance: 2000 AD … a glossary from the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic … ‘Earthlettes – similar to Earthlets, but applied to females only. This caused a furore on the letters page and eventually was deprecated in favour of the now gender-neutral term “earthlets”, though now “Terrans” seems to be in vogue.’

[internet] Sept. 19, 1982: Can’t You Take a Joke? … Wired on the origins of the emoticon … ‘The modern emoticon does trace its lineage directly to Fahlman, who says he came up with the idea after reading “lengthy diatribes” from people on the message board who failed to get the joke or the sarcasm in a particular post.’

[funny] The Onion – EPA Shuts Down Local Ghost-Entrapment Business … ‘Though its incarcerated employees were unavailable for comment, the company released a statement denying any wrongdoing. The statement also repudiated claims that those associated with the spectral-entrapment operation were afraid of any individual ghost, and went on to say that the act of capturing said ghosts simply made them “feel good.” Despite being a relatively new discipline, specter reclamation, more popularly referred to as “phantom-busting,” has enjoyed enormous success in recent weeks due to a massive increase in paranormal phenomena in the New York area.’

[end] How To Destroy The Earth … ‘You’ve seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You’ve heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world. Fools. The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you’ve had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily.’ [via Metafilter]

[comics] From Batman to Incognito, Ed Brubaker Loves the Ultraviolence … Ed Brubaker interview from Wired … ‘I think noir and comics really do go together, yeah. I think the use of close-ups and angles and shadows in noir is really influential to modern comics in general. They taught guys like Eisner and Toth and Johnny Craig how to establish mood on the page.’

[life] Make the Switch … useful FAQ on energy-efficient lightbulbs … ‘With an old-style 100W bulb, you’re effectively switching on a 20W light source and an 80W electric heater.’