[crime] The Vanity of Reason: Making Sense of the Virginia Tech Tragedy … ‘People of sound mind often assume that individuals with mental illness think like we do: therefore, they must be misinformed, wrong-headed, or just pretending. We are, essentially, in denial. We delude ourselves into believing that we can figure these people out, and in so doing, learn how to “fix” them.’

[blogs] The Diary of a Nobody, as a daily weblog … ‘This is a weblog version of The Diary of a Nobody, written by George Grossmith and originally serialised in Punch magazine in 1888 and 1889. Bringing Charles Pooter into the 21st century, his diary is now available as a selection of weblog-style RSS feeds which you can subscribe to…’ [via As Above]

[drugs] 72-Hour Party People … behind the scenes at 3 day meth binge — ‘”Oh, my God, you know the fucking war, right? The liberation, the occupation, whatever? And the Palestinians, right? And the Israelis and the Muslims and Hindus and all the hate and the fucking guns and the bombs and the, uh, the, uh, you know, all the children with their legs blown off by land mines in Afghanistan, right? You see what I’m saying? I mean, you all know, you’ve all seen like a million times that one picture of that little boy from Afghanistan, right? And he’s in his little purple robe, with his little white sheepherder’s hat, and his little Christmas Carol, um, what do you call it? His Tiny Tim crutches, you know, right? And he’s got these, like, you know, like these little sad, brown, puppy dog, fucking abused-animal, dog-pound, take-me-home-please eyes, right? I mean, God…okay, right now, let’s get online, and let’s find out who he is and where he lives and, and, and, let’s find out what we need to do to buy him a new leg, right now! Who’s got a laptop?” Bonnie is 27 and a florist…’ [via Metafilter]

[blogs] Scenes from a Blog — the life of a blog-post expressed in diagram … ‘Descend to general ennui.’

[funny] Biblical Curse Generator … ‘I pray thou shalt be mocked by eunuchs, thou child of Jezebel!’

[tv] The MacGyver Multi-Tool … ‘The only tool you’ll ever need…’ [via Clipmarks]

[comics] Massimo Belardinelli 1938 – 2007: A Tribute by Pat Mills — very sad to hear news of the death of this stalwart 2000AD artist from it’s earlier years … ‘It is also worth stressing his real devotion and loyalty to 2000AD. He was not working for 2000AD as a portfolio piece before he headed off to Marvel or Vertigo; in working on the comic he had arrived. It was where he chose to be. I can relate to that. As one 2000AD reader, Steve Earles, put it to me today, he was: “A true one-off. In this day of cookie-cutter clone artists we will not see his like again.” I concur…’

[archive] Linkdump:

• Akira Fansite … ‘TETSUOOOOOOOOOO!’ [via Metafilter]
• Use Your Mac Mini as a Media Server … I’m very tempted by this…
• YouTube: The Simpsons Evolution Intro … watch the evolution of the Homer and check the comments: ‘ Matt Groening created “The Simpsons.” That’s probably as much creationism as is relevant for this video.’
• Create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut … useful tip for using USB Devices with Windows.
• The Top 50 Productivity Blogs … So, you can cure procrastination by reading productivity blogs?
• YouTube: Lazy Sunday UK … ‘Tea, Motherfucker!’
• Ask Metafilter: Women comic book authors … ‘What are some good comic books written by female authors?’

[health] Ask Metafilter: I am a Mutant with an enlarged brain, I’ve had a device implanted into my head but its very sensitive to electromagnetic fields.. please help me avoid them.

[comics] A Script Review of Grant Morrison’s We3 — a look at Morrison’s script for New Line Cinema’s adaptation of We3 … ‘Much of the film is a long chase, a blend between one of Disney’s Fantastic Journey films and, perhaps, The Iron Giant by way of Robocop or another hard, gristle-strewn actionaer. It is also a brilliant and incisive exploration of freedom, instinct, will the universe’s natural orders… and the desire to identify yourself as an individual.’

[music] Coming soon: the Ian Curtis happy meal? … ‘Sportswear company New Balance has commissioned two pairs of trainers inspired by [Joy Division]. One features the cover artwork and the catalogue number of their 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures, while another displays the Factory records logo and the cryptic slogan One of One Made in Macclesfield. They are the work of Dylan Adair, perhaps the only man in history to listen to Joy Division and think of sports-casual footwear…’

[tv] £1,500 in a carrier bag? What planet are you on? — the origins of the BBC TV drama Life on Mars … ‘One of us said, “Is there any way we can just do The Sweeney in the Seventies?” The Sweeney is terminally sexist, terminally racist, all the things you just can’t do, and yet we also thought there was almost an odd innocence about it. We just had a feeling it wouldn’t turn out to be a vile piece of offensive drama but might end up being quite cool and fun, and probably the only way to do that it is to take someone with our sensibilities and plonk them right in the middle of it, so that any time Gene Hunt says, “All right luv, go and make us a cup of tea and [bring] a Garibaldi biscuit,” someone can roll their eyes. Somehow that lets us off the hook.’ Graham got to work on the story under the working title Ford Granada…’

[comics] Stuart Immonen on Computers and Art: ‘…Huge imagebanks and community photosites started cropping up online. If I wondered whether the NYPD drove Ford Crown Victorias or Chevy Impalas (trick question- they use both), the answer was available in a matter of clicks. Need to know the typical architecture in the Pyrenees or the Ginza? No problem. The governing philosophy is this: reference is a device, and is only as useful as the artist who wields it is talented. In other words, ideally, it will spur creativity, not stifle it, allowing the artist to work efficiently and effectively.’

[bbc] spEak You’re bRanes — a blog on the wit and wisdom of the BBC’s Have Your Say Site… On the Falklands (I think!): ‘when jim challaan was pm thay got to know some how that the agies where going to invade the fslklands and thats all he did was send a nuclear submaren out there and let the argentenas know that it was waiting for them but we all knew what happened then maggie did she do the same as jim no she let them invade and she was told the same as jim that thay were abought to invade and look what it cost us’ [via The Daily Chump]

[comics] The Connections between Lost and Watchmen — interesting Wikipedia-style article … ‘In Watchmen there are a character named Bernard, who opened a magazine store to meet people after his wife, Rose, died. In lost Rose and Bernard are two minor characters…’ [via Pete Ashton]

[film] Charity Screening of An Inconvenient Truth — Sashinka has arranged a screening of Al Gore’s Documentary at the End of April for charity. Details below. Please support if you can by attending or if you’re not based in London you can donate by clicking here. Thanks!

Charity screening of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth    Date: 29th April 2007   Where: Tricycle Cinema, London   Time: 12.30pm  Price:£12.50   (or click to support Sasha’s Charity Mission to Moldova)

[london] Google thwarts al-Qaeda kamikaze strike on US embassy … ‘Quite what the Post Office boys down on Rathbone Place will make of Google’s fingering of their building as a decoy target is anyone’s guess…’

[self-help] Ask Metafilter: What is the dumbest, funniest, most peculiar piece of advice you have ever found in a self-help book? … ‘From the worst ‘How To’ book on screenwriting ever written (“How to Write a Movie in 21 days” by Viki King): WEAR YOUR LUCKY SOCKS.’

[comics] The Mile High Collection — interesting Metafilter discussion on the discovery a massive collection of Golden Age comics (reminds me of Seth’s wonderful Wimbledon Green) … ‘$2 million for Action Comics #1. $273,000 for Flash #1. This society is sick.’

[green] I’ll Compost Your Corpse — The BBC’s “Ethical Man” looks at the issues around decomposing a corpse in an enviromentally friendly way. ‘…the problem with the way a corpse decomposes at the bottom of a grave is that there isn’t enough oxygen to get a good aerobic compost going. The main by-products of aerobic decomposition include carbon dioxide and water meanwhile anaerobic decomposition produces methane – 23 times as powerful a greenhouse-gas as CO2.’ [via Digg]

[comics] Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels — great list including some I’ve blogged before. Includes this classic panel:

[comics] Are People really that anxious to see Lois get spanked?!? — amusing collection of letters from Superman comics in the Sixties … ‘Dear Editor, Everybody keeps asking for a story in which Lois gets a super-spanking. You keep saving Lois from a well deserved thrashing by saying SUPERMAN is a gentleman and would never hit a lady. Well I KNOW he’s a gentleman. But what about a story in which SUPERMAN meets up with RED Kryptonite…’

[press] The Ten Things Most Likely to be on The Daily Express Front Page — Currybetdotnet analyses the Daily Express so you don’t have to … ‘I’ve looked at just over 150 stories which have been published on the front page of The Daily Express during the first three months of 2007, and I think I’ve come up with the definitive list of the ten most important things that have happened so far this year. Well, according to The Daily Express, anyway…’

[tv] Peepshow Series 1-3 Catch Up — Peep Show summarised by Super Hans … ‘Frosties are just cornflakes for people who can’t face reality.’ [via As Above]

[sopranos] 7 Minute Sopranos — brilliantly done summary of six seasons of the Sopranos … Christmas with the Sopranos: ‘Tony and Carm are racist. A.J. resents his Dad. Carm is pissed at her Dad. Bacala’s kids hate Janice. Tony is pissed at Chris for banging that Chick. Meadow’s moved to California and Chris is back on heroin.’ [via Metafilter]

[blogs] Real interview with Fake Steve Jobs … ‘You know this one time when I was at Reed and really experimenting with acid, we did some 4-way acid but we didn’t realize it was 4-way so we each took a whole hit — which turned out to be a quadruple dose. And I swear during that trip I imagined the iPod for the first time. This was the early 70s. Actually I imagined a little teeny tiny record player that you could carry with you. But that’s basically what a hard disk is. I think.’

[apple] Top 10 Apple Products which Flopped … ‘One of the main reasons of Lisa’s failure was its astonishing price of $9,995 dollars ($21,500 in Feb 2007 dollars).’

[tv] Quotes from the Batman TV Series … Batman: ‘A reporter’s lot is not easy, making exciting stories out of plain, average, ordinary people like Robin and me.’ [via linkbunnies.org]

[comics] For Sale on eBay: Ultimate X-Men, Collected 1-3 and 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 by Mark Millar and Andy Kubert.

[tv] Farewell Tony, a modern Everyman — Preview of the Last Series of the Sopranos … ‘Unlike most crime boss anti-heroes, Tony Soprano has vulnerabilities. The first episode of the pilot for the series, made two years before the show was picked up by HBO, opens with Tony staring at a statue of a naked woman. He is sitting in the psychiatrist’s waiting room, where he has come for his first session following his collapse from a panic attack. The tone for the 77 episodes that have followed was set: Tony was a modern wise guy, shackled by the responsibilities of both families, and caught at home between the demands of mother, wife, mistress and shrink.’