11 January 2006
[ukblogs] Call Centre Confidential Returns … ‘This is a new start and a chance to reinvent myself.’0
[comics] Fell #1 — Warren Ellis’ new comic available online with art from Ben Templesmith. ‘Detective Richard Fell is transferred over the bridge from the big city to Snowtown, a feral district whose police roster numbers three-and-a-half people (one detective has no legs). Dumped in this collapsing urban trashzone, Richard Fell is starting all over again. In a place where nothing seems to make any sense, Fell clings to the one thing he knows to be true: Everybody’s hiding something. Even him.’
10 January 2006
[funny] David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist … ‘He has even less musical talent than John Tesh… His television shows are unwatchable… and yet He’s one of the world’s most popular stars… how has He done it? I submit David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist and I have the proof…’
[comics] Michael Avon Oeming takes on Warren Ellis — interview between the two comic creators … ‘I come to the pub to work, not to talk. A fan once tracked down the pub I work in, and came in asking questions. When I arrived, everyone was very tense. He didn’t realise there were three large blokes behind him ready to stamp on him if he moved funny. He turned out to be a very nice guy. But they’re kind of protective of me here.’
9 January 2006
[google] Can’t Find On Google — web site listing things people can’t find on Google … ‘Most of the time, you punch what you want to know into Google, and you instantly get what you’re looking for. But have you ever had that experience, where you try query after query and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t find what you’re looking for? That’s what this site is for — because the things Google can’t find is more interesting than the stuff Google can find.’
[distraction] Poom! — another fun web browser based keepy-uppy game.
8 January 2006
[movie] Viral Email: How Not to Drink a Flaming Sambuca [more…]
7 January 2006
[politics] Get Back To Work, George — find out how much George Galloway is costing the British taxpayer whilst he’s in Celebrity Big Brother.
[comics] Drawing Fire — Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson describes why political cartoonists should never give out their email addresses. ‘…every time I draw a cartoon critical of George Bush my inbox gets inundated with a tidal surge of hate mail. I’m not alone, of course. Steve Bell gets it too. In fact the first piece of digital bile I received asked me why I drew Mr Bush as a monkey, when he was the president of the United States of America and I was just a schmuck. I politely replied that I never had, and that my correspondent had got the wrong lefty cartoonist. I got a reply saying I was an asshole anyway.’
4 January 2006
[books] Spotted on Amazon.co.uk: The Further Adventures of Belle De Jour … ‘What Belle de Jour did next… From becoming an agony aunt, to hanging up her stilettos and finding love with a man who knows all about her past…’ [Delicious: Posts with belledejour Tag]
3 January 2006
[comics] Warren Ellis Audio Interview — check out the Alan Moore section … ‘No Warren. Don’t tell me about the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Film. I might cry.’
31 December 2005
[comics] Scans_Daily: Best Batman Joke. Ever.
30 December 2005
[games] Mornington Crescent on Wikipedia — contains spoilers for the game … ‘Item #101 of the 2005 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt was for one player on each team to “participate in an email adaptation of the classic game Mornington Crescent”, using the CTA rail system. Participants were warned, “We shall follow the standard Thurgood-Hamilton conversion algorithm, but banning semi-lateral shunts.”‘ [via Metafilter]
29 December 2005
[radio] Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher — a radio program about Shortwave Numbers Stations. [via qwghlm.co.uk]
[links] Kottke: The Best Links 2005
28 December 2005
[comics] They Dealt with Dan. Now Dana and Yasmin target Dennis — the Guardian looks at Children’s Xmas Comic Annuals … ‘Al Notton is not convinced that comics of any kind have a future. “I was speaking to my seven-year-old nephew about comics recently, and he said, ‘Uncle Alan, what’s a comic?'”‘ [via Bugpowder]
27 December 2005
[ebay] eBay Auction: Cooked, Unwanted Christmas Dinner Item! … ‘You are bidding on One Cooked Brussels Sprout’ [via Random Acts of Reality]
25 December 2005
[xmas] Happy Christmas Everybody.
23 December 2005
[toys] The Toy That Ate Christmas — the Guardian looks at the story behind the Roboraptor. ‘… when Roboraptor behaves “intelligently” you catch yourself feeling impressed, and when it doesn’t, you catch yourself responding as you would to a clumsy toddler, rather than as you ought to respond to an assemblage of 132 plastic parts, 235 metal ones and 191 electrical components. But Roboraptor is not, primarily, intended to be cute. “This is the first robot that really has the ability to scare small children,” Tilden says proudly. “Our previous robots could annoy your cat. Roboraptor can hunt him.” All this is achieved with a radically simple design: the toy’s decision-making circuits are modelled on the chip in a musical Christmas card.’
22 December 2005
[survival] Important Question of the Day: Is it a good idea to drink your own urine? … ‘Dr Stroud says there is just one situation where urine might be useful – if, just as your ship sinks, you happen to be completely drunk. “Like you just had eight pints of lager and you were peeing like crazy,” he says. “Arguably, the first couple of urines, if you kept those, might just possibly give you more water than salt.” As for non-emergency situations, Stroud dismisses those who believe urine could be beneficial…’
21 December 2005
19 December 2005
[stalking] Stalking for Beginners — a Howto guide on ruining someone’s life … ‘After he fell asleep, I took down all the phone numbers in his cell while hiding in the bathroom. Mom, Dad, Susan, Rita, Jeff, and some guy named “Coke Delivery.” Real subtle, dude. I went back to bed with him and murmured “I love you.” He moved away from me. Everything was working as planned. He was getting stalked.’ [via iamcal.com]
18 December 2005
[art] The Cat Pictures of Louis Wain — some examples of the Cat pictures of Louis Wain – a famous Victorian artist and schizophrenic. ‘…a foundation was set up for him by his peers (including the famous H.G. Wells) which enabled Wain to spend the last years of his life in comfort in private asylums in Southwark and Napsbury, where he continued to paint and draw his cats. Wain allows us a unique insight into the delusions and course of illness in a late onset schizophrenic.’
17 December 2005
[flu] Jon Ronson: ‘Recently I mentioned here that I have a stash of Tamiflu, bought over the internet. I keep it safely in the medicine cabinet, even though I’ve appraised the situation and don’t believe that an avian flu pandemic will hit. I base this assessment on the fact that we didn’t all die of CJD, and also I’ve an idea that the sort of people who don’t believe in the imminence of a bird flu pandemic are enlightened freethinkers and that’s how I like to see myself.’
16 December 2005
[links] Glanced at:
[movies] Vision of Hell — a Guardian article which asks: What Makes a Great War Film? … ‘It is easy to understand why Jane Fonda abominated The Deer Hunter. The Vietnamese characters are not sympathetic or deep, the American soldiers are, and the movie ends with the survivors sitting around the table, singing God Bless America. But that simplistic summary, and Fonda’s hostility, mischaracterise the subtlety and complexity of Cimino’s feature: the tender slowness with which he describes the home town the conscripts come from, which makes you understand the coldness of the American war machine, the depth of the betrayal involved in hurling trusting young patriots into an incomprehensible nightmare for which their upbringing has not prepared them, and the true, lingering nature of war wounds.’
15 December 2005
[movies] Letters to Walken — amusing Christmas Letters to Christopher Walken … ‘Mr Walken, Please, will you come Dance at my Birthday Party?’ [via linkbunnies.org]
14 December 2005
[news] Suburb Lawyer Shoots Pirates — a North London Headline Crisis from Sashinka.
13 December 2005
[comics] Dr. Fredric Wertham’s Weblog — the infamous anti-comics crusader has a posthumous blog (he died in 1981) … ‘Flooding the market with love-confession comics is so successful in diverting attention from crime comic books that it has been entirely overlooked that many of them are crime comic books, with a seasoning of love added. Unless the love comics are sprinkled with some crime they do not sell. Apparently love does not pay.’
[news] Cardiff Terrifies Me — headline posters from the South Wales Echo … ‘CARDIFF – Muslim Pupils in Sausage Roll Blunder’ [via Metafilter]
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