linkmachinego.com
4 December 2005
[food] Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good — exerpt from Fast Food Nation‘[As] he opened each bottle, I dipped a fragrance-testing filter into it — a long white strip of paper designed to absorb aroma chemicals without producing off notes. Before placing each strip of paper in front of my nose, I closed my eyes. Then I inhaled deeply, and one food after another was conjured from the glass bottles. I smelled fresh cherries, black olives, sautéed onions, and shrimp. Grainger’s most remarkable creation took me by surprise. After closing my eyes, I suddenly smelled a grilled hamburger. The aroma was uncanny, almost miraculous — as if someone in the room were flipping burgers on a hot grill. But when I opened my eyes, I saw just a narrow strip of white paper and a flavorist with a grin.’
[web] When Murder Hits the Blogosphere — this actually should be titled “Murder on MySpace”. ‘…[Kara Borden’s MySpace] page was brightly colored with pink-lined black boxes listing her friends and hobbies, a rainbow striped white background and a picture of her in a pink top, smiling with lips closed to hide her braces. She listed her interests as soccer, talking on the phone, the beach and partying. “Books are gay,” she wrote. She lied about her age, listing it as 17. A few hours later she allegedly stood by as her boyfriend, David Ludwig, 18, shot and killed her parents.’
3 December 2005
[links] Glanced at:

2 December 2005
[comics] The Dawn of Dilbert — online version of the original Dilbert submission package which Scott Adams sent to various cartoon syndicates – includes 50 Strips … ‘Synopsis: Dilbert is an engineer. He is about thirty, and works at an undisclosed high-tech company in Northern California. He lives with his dog, Dogbert, who bears a striking resemblance to Dilbert (including glasses and the ability to speak). Dilbert is very intelligent and kind-hearted, which makes him particularly ill-suited for life on this planet. Dogbert is also intelligent, but with a cynical edge. In contrast to his master, Dogbert has such a simple, yet keen understanding of human nature that his perceptions seem ridiculous to Dilbert.’
1 December 2005
[comics] Where’s Barry? — Barry Allen isn’t Dead. He’s just Resting… ‘Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, has been called “DC’s first official saint.” He died saving the entire universe, after all, and to avoid cheapening that sacrifice he is likely to be one of the few comic book characters whose death will actually stick. However, his virtual sainthood has led to Barry being sighted as often as Elvis…’
30 November 2005
[myspace] The Hit Factory — Wired on MySpace‘[MySpace] encouraged creativity to the point of chaos. For MySpace’s mostly young demographic, their pages were multimedia outgrowths of their jackets, lockers, and notebooks – a place for band stickers, poems, personality quizzes, R-rated photos, and anything else HTML allows.’
29 November 2005
[comics] I’ll Thank You Not To Call My Collection Of Sequential-Art Erotica ‘Dirty Comics’ — a classic Onion: ‘…your familiarity with comics is so limited, you couldn’t identify Aquaman’s wife without recourse to the Justice League FAQ! To think I believed you capable of appreciating the works of the finest erotic artists working in the medium today!’
[celebs] Finding Stalking Billie Piper — a Blogger’s Odyssey in search of Billie Piper … ‘Previously: Triforce decides it wants to find Billie Biper. Uses Google. Tracks down approximate location. Decides to go drinking and find her. And keep her.’
28 November 2005
[bbc] BBC pulls plug on Dalek Lesbian Romp Flick — DVD pulled from eBay … ‘The director of Terry Nation’s estate, Tim Hancock, told the paper: “The reason the Daleks are still the most sinister thing in the universe is because they do not make things like porn. They weren’t ever intended to be sexual creatures. It’s simple, Daleks do not do porn.”‘
[microsoft] Use Excel? A couple of good blogs from Experts: Daily Dose of Excel and Andrew’s Excel Tips.
27 November 2005
[distraction] The Scribbler — fun, web doodling toy (which has just reminded me to link to Doodleblog)
26 November 2005
[ebay] Bayraider — a blog about eBay from Shiny Media‘You Flog It. We Blog It.’
25 November 2005
[football] The Long Goodbye — George Best summed up by Gordon Burns … ‘It seems remarkable, given his career of drunk-driving, philandering and domestic violence, and his multiple addictions to alcohol, gambling and sex, that Best only went to prison once. That happened in 1984 when, after failing to appear in court on a drunk-driving charge and resisting arrest after the police cornered him in a girlfriend’s flat, he served two months. But it’s an exchange that took place in the canteen at Southwark crown court before sentencing that has entered Best lore. His friends and defence team were staring into the bottom of their coffee cups, with nothing to say. Then George glanced across at them with a smile. “Well, I suppose that’s the knighthood fucked,” he said.’
[comics] Amazing Heroes #176 Cover — in an interview Grant Morrison points out the Greatest Ever Line in Comics: ‘It was really a traumatic period, crammed with adolescent horrors. But all the stuff in St Swithins Day has come out of that time. The whole strip is lifted from my teenage diaries. I actually found the greatest ever line in comics in one of those diaries. It’s the first time that a character has ever just sat down and said, “Why am I such a wanker?” That came from the 1979 diary, some tortured moment on the M6.’ (from Feb 1990)
24 November 2005
[links] Glanced at:
23 November 2005
[graffiti] The Writings on the Stall — website of writings found on toilet walls … ‘This toilet paper is like John Wayne. Tough as nails and don’t take shit off nobody.’
22 November 2005
[science] An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot‘Events started to diverge from the course expected of a standard teapot in a very short timescale. The first evidence of loss of containment was observed at approximately T+5s, in the form of a major leak in the vicinity of the handle. By T+10s major structural failure was clearly in progress…’
21 November 2005
[travel] Blogjam in North Korea — Fraser visited the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and produced some great reports… From Day Four: ‘…[We are] taken to the Arch of Triumph, built in 1982 and (as we’re repeatedly told) three meters taller than its more famous Parisienne counterpart. The construction is dedicated to “the home return of the Great Leader Kim Il-sung who liberated Korea from Japanese colonialism”. To be honest, there’s not much that this fella didn’t do.’
20 November 2005
[music] 99 Luftballons, Side by Side Comparison — a comparison of the German and English Translations of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons‘If you have some time for me… Then I’ll sing a song for you… ‘ vs. ‘You and I in a little toy shop… buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got…’
[shops] Your Life in their Hands — The Observer goes behind the scenes at Muji. ‘…here on the second floor of the Yurakucho store I’d stumbled across a neat display of Muji Earthquake Emergency Packs. The black, 6,300 yen, zip-up cases open to reveal a wind-up torch/radio (in violently bright orange – not very Muji), a white towel, two small bottles of water, wet-wipes, a candle, plasters, a collapsible water-collecting bag, a roll of packing tape and, lastly, a pair of folding slippers…’
19 November 2005
[movies] Glanced at: Superman Returns Teaser Trailer
18 November 2005
[books] Blink: The Movie — Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink to be turned into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio?! ‘…we were curious to hear what [Gladwell] had in mind for the movie. He tells us, “It takes a single character from Blink — Silvan Tompkins — and fashions an entirely new story around him, about what it means to be someone who can read other people’s thoughts.”‘
17 November 2005
[blogs] The New Commentariat — the Guardian on the UK’s Political Blogs … ‘Britain’s bloggers are divided not just by ideology, it turns out, but by their perception of their own importance: while Samizdata proclaims that blogs are the future, for example, Oliver Kamm insists they are an essentially parasitic medium, that can only exist insofar as it feasts on the output of traditional media.’
[comics] Grant Morrison’s Six Rules for Writing “All-Star Superman”‘PLAY CLARK AS A ROLE WITH A GOAL – We’re playing Clark as a big, clever country guy who’s used to wide-open horizons and who can’t seem to move in a confined space without knocking something over. The real wizardry is in Frank Quitely’s art, which captures a lot of physical nuances and subtle body language that previous Superman artists have often overlooked in their portrayal of Clark. He’s not just Superman with glasses on. He’s a performer. He allows Superman to experience humility, among other things.’ [Related: Official Preview from DC]
16 November 2005
[comics] The Killing Joke Script — the first 40 pages from Alan Moore’s script … ‘As far as the characters themselves go, I’ll describe them in detail when they make their appearances, but my only general note would be that like the landscape and the various props, they have a sort of timeless and mythic quality to them which doesn’t fix them firmly in any one age-range or time-period. The Joker looks either old or badly depraved, but then he’s always looked that way. The Batman is big and grim and older than we are, because as I remember the Batman he’s always been bigger and older than I am and I’ll fight any man that says different.’
14 November 2005
[blogs] Diary of a London Cokehead — another UK Blog‘Soooo, Benny scale of Fuckedness = 900… Well done that man!!’
[blogs] Rachel from North London‘This blog was started to provide a place to continue my online diary that I started after surviving the 7/7/2005 London bombings, when I was travelling in the first carriage of the Picadilly line tube from Kings Cross to Russell Square. The bomb went off in my carriage, 7 feet behind me in carriage 1. 26 people died in that blast and dozens were maimed and wounded.’
13 November 2005
[books] If You Haven’t A Clue — profile of Ben Schott‘The curious thing about Schott is that, despite his arcane tastes and instincts for privacy, he has a highly marketable persona: the blend of self-assurance and innocence you find in polished talkshow guests, and a nice turn of phrase. (“Google is about as good as going into the street and saying, ‘Does anyone know how much the registration threshold for VAT went up?’ And someone goes, ‘I think it’s 49,000.’ And you go, ‘Oh, 49,000, great.’ That’s Google.”)’
12 November 2005
[comics] Glanced at: Scott Pilgrim on MySpace.
10 November 2005
[comics] Alan Moore on Terrorism, America and Britain: ‘…You have to remember that over here there were teenagers being taken out of cellar bars in separate carrier bags all through the ’70s and ’80s because of the war in Northern Ireland. In that case, the IRA were largely being supported by donations from America. That was why I was a bit worried when George Bush said he was going to attack people who supported terrorism, I thought, oh my god, Chicago is going to be declared a rogue state and they’ll hunt down Teddy Kennedy.’