LinkMachineGo

[games] Pac-Man Guide — advice and games patterns for playing Pac-Man … ‘Pac-Man is the game which represents everything that’s good about gaming (any kind of gaming) and nothing that is bad. It’s easy to grasp but hard to master. Addictive and stuffed with pure unadulterated gameplay. Frustrating but always having you come back for more. Never boring and always tense, even for the best players. Always giving you the impression that you can master it but never quite letting you get there.’ [via Do You Feel Loved?]

[blogs] Meg on blogging and flying ants: ‘I’ve found the real point of blogging, the only real reason for keeping and maintaining a blog regularly over all these years. And you know what it is? The point of blogging is so I can keep tabs on when the flying ants come out in London every summer.’

[music] Javis Cocker’s MySpace … ‘Welcome friends, to my humble little corner of the Internet. As you can see from the photo over there I have been computing to my heart’s content for some time & now I want to share the experience with you.’

[comics] Long Roundtable Watchmen Interview with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons soon after Watchmen was released …

Alan Moore: ‘…if we have any optimism in [Watchmen] it’ll be valid optimism because it won’t simply be based on ignoring the nasty facts of life. To me, just in that last panel, in Godfrey’s last line “I leave it entirely in your hands” – that’s talking to the reader as well… I leave it entirely in your hands, how do we sort out this Gordian Knot? If the question is who makes the world? then if there’s an answer it is that everybody does. Yeah, there’s people that seem to be in more immediate power than others but really the world is an elaborate series of accidents, coincidences and unbelievable synchronicities that people appear to be in control of but… well, think about the events in your own life, the things that have made really dramatic changes in you can be traced back to deciding to pick up a ballpoint pen or not pick it up.’

[books] The Myth Maker — a profile of H. P. Lovecraft by Michel Houellebecq … ‘Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. The skies will be glacial and empty, traversed by the feeble light of half-dead stars. These too will disappear. Everything will disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movement of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure “Victorian fictions”. All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact and radiant.’

[bb] Meanwhile, in the Big Brother House… ‘After winning the tennis task, the house is furnished with lots of alcohol and a small sense of drunken bonhomie fills the air. “I know!” shouts Mikey, “Let’s play Truth or Dare!” “Yes! What a great idea!” shouts everyone else. There must be a box on the Big Brother application form that says: “Despite being over the age of 12, do you still think it’s a really good idea to play any drinking game with a title like Spin the Bottle/Ten Minutes in the Closet/Bap-Grope/Touch the Snake, or any other party game that will no doubt result in someone needing 72-hour emergency contraception? Tick yes or no.”‘

[comics] Review of Lost Girls — Blogcritics.org reviews a preview copy of Lost Girls … ‘Much of Moore’s work involves a critical transformative event that breaks the border between worlds, such as the genocidal concentration camp that creates his “V” in V For Vendetta, or the murders of Jack the Ripper seen as a kind of invocation for the 20th century in From Hell. In Lost Girls, the telling of sexual histories by his girls is a chance for them to escape old hurts, embrace old pains and enjoy their sexuality unashamed. Wendy, from Peter Pan, is a tightly wound Victorian prude when we first see her, but gradually opens to embrace her lusty past with Moore’s sexaholic Pan.’

[comics] Cape Fear — The Guardian asks if Superman is still necessary? … ‘Superman seems to thrive – at least in the movies – in periods of political conservatism or backlash. This is true of many superheroes, but particularly of Superman, who is not usually considered a rebellious figure.’

[comics] Steve Bell’s cover to The British CB Book from 1981 …

steve bell's cover to the british cb book 1981

[art] Create your own Jackson Pollock … fun, simple flash app. [via Robot Wisdom]

[7/7] Seeing isn’t Believing — The Guardian on the 7/7 Conspiracy Theories … ‘”I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” insists Dunne. “I was just trying to make a cohesive, coherent story from the facts.”‘

[7/7] Diamond Geezer on 7/7 … Aldgate, Edgware Road, King’s Cross St Pancras, 30. ‘…it’s just something I have to do every day. It’s just another train. It’s just another carriage.’

[kipple] More on Kipple … J.R.Isidore explaining Kipple to Pris: ‘Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers of yesterday’s homeopape. When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there’s twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.’

[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Kipple … ‘Kipple is a term coined by science fiction author Philip K. Dick in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It refers to unwanted or useless junk that tends to reproduce itself. Some of Dick’s descriptions of it suggest an analogy to entropy. According to two characters from the book, John Isidore stated that the first law of “kipple” is that “kipple” drives out “nonkipple”;’

[7/7] The Mysterious Case Of The Non-Existent Train Time — a blog investigating the messy loose-ends in the story behind the London Bombings on July 7th last year … ‘I have only one reason for starting this blog. It is to ascertain the facts behind the events in London on and since the 7th July 2005. I have made many attempts to ascertain a few simple facts (and therefore truths) about the events on that morning…’

[comics] From Zero to Hero — How does Hergé’s Tintin compare to great literature? ‘…should we now claim, posthumously, on Hergé’s behalf, that in fact he was a writer, and a great one? My short answer to this question is: no. My longer answer is that the claim we should make for him is a more interesting one. And it revolves around two paradoxes. The first is that wrapped up in a simple medium for children is a mastery of plot and symbol, theme and sub-text far superior to that displayed by most “real” novelists. If you want to be a writer, study The Castafiore Emerald. It holds all literature’s formal keys, its trade secrets – and holds them at the vanishing point of plot, where nothing whatsoever happens.’

[shop] Forbidden Planet’s Blog

… the famous comic shop gets a blog.

[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Richard Belzer — random cast look-up during Law & Order: Special Victims Unit … ‘Belzer and Henry Winkler (most notably the Fonz on Happy Days) are cousins.’

[photos] On D’Israeli’s Flickr photostream: A Plug Cyberman.

[comics] Alan Moore TV interview from 1987 — watch young Alan Moore flipping his hair back all the time as Gaz Top interviews him about Swamp Thing and plugs the recently released (at the time) Watchmen.

[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Seinfeld … Jason Alexander on George: ‘…the true root of [George’s] character was realized upon a conversation between Alexander and David earlier on in the series, in which Alexander questions a script saying, “This could never happen to anyone and even if it did, no human being would react like this” to which David replied, “What do you mean? This happened to me once and this is exactly how I reacted!”‘

[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: No True Scotsman. ‘…a common fallacy in politics, in which critics may condemn their colleagues as not being “true” liberals or conservatives because they occasionally disagree on certain matters of policy. It comes in many other forms – “No decent person would” – it is argued “support hanging/watch pornography/smoke in public”, etc. Often the speaker seems unaware that he/she is, in fact, coercively (re)defining what the phrase “decent person” means to include/exclude what he/she wants and NOT simply following what the phrase is already accepted as meaning.’

[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Alfred Henry Hook — I took a look at this because I wondered what happed to Hooky from Zulu after the Battle of Rourke’s Drift … ‘In the film Zulu, Hook is portrayed as an insubordinate malingerer and drunkard who only comes good during the battle. In fact he had been awarded Good Conduct pay shortly prior to the battle, and reports also suggest he was a teetotaller.’

[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Evel Knievel … ‘On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed a single $100 dollar bet on the blackjack table, which he lost, stopped by the bar and got a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by several members of the Caesar’s staff, as well as two scantily clad showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel received a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.’

[comics] John Byrne and his Forum discuss Lost Girls … Byrne: ‘This thread is officially too depressing. That there are people who would defend Moore on any grounds just adds to my overall sense of having wasted 30 years of my life. End of thread.’

[comics] Metafilter on Lost Girls … ‘So is this really a viable business model? Take a children’s classic, toss in some pornography, generate some canned controversy and then PROFIT!? I’ll be watching closely to see how much Moore rakes in on this. If this works then I can finally start shopping around my The Secret Life of Tiggers.’

[blog] What Everybody should know about Blog Depression — a public service pamphlet for bloggers …

panels from a larry gonick comic about lumps and chaotic mixing...

[tv] Mr Noseybonk in the Greenhouse — kids TV in the 80’s. I’d completly forgotten about Mr Noseybonk. Probably for the best… [via Venusberg]

[comics] Rich Johnson Reviews Lost Girls: ‘This comic has driven me to complex thought, to patterns and ideas staying fixed in my own mental space that will stay with me. I will quote this book in conversation, I know it. I will see others through it, I will filter experience through it, it has affected me as much as any fiction can.’

[comics] Rich Johnson on Lost Girls: ‘But I can’t see this being published, with Alan Moore’s current media profile, with the characters of Alice, Dorothy and Wendy used in this was (not to mention the coincidental Harold Potter) without someone kicking off. Am I the only one who can see “PEDO PAN” as a front-page headline of the News Of The World? I’ve already been asked for comment by the BBC which is planning a news feature in a couple of weeks.’

[comics] Alan Moore’s Erotic Lost Girls — some pages from Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls [NSFW].

[ebay] Mathematicians snipe to win on eBay — the New Scientist on the best strategy to win auctions on eBay … ‘[Mathematicians] saw a mathematical pattern in the bidding behaviour of bidders and derived a simple power-law equation to describe this. This power law reflects the fact that bids become more frequent as the end of an auction approaches. The researchers used this equation to determine the best time to make a winning bid. They conclude that sniping is the best approach.’ [via Kottke]

[comics] Hospital worry at “porn” take on Peter Pan’s Wendy — Reuters on Lost Girls … ‘Moore insists on calling the work “pornography”, while Publishers Weekly, in an article earlier this year, said it involved “fetishism, incest and even a touch of bestiality, as well as a whole lot of sexual activity involving minors”. It is due to be published in the United States in August.’

[comics] ‘Sex acts’ Wendy is Panned — CNN on Great Ormand Street and Lost Girls … ‘Stephen Cox, the hospital’s spokesman, said in a telephone interview Friday that it has not taken legal action against Moore and is was waiting to see whether the author will contact the institution to discuss its objections.’

[comics] Comic row over graphic Peter Pan — Great Ormond Street Hospital isn’t happy Alan Moore sexing up Peter Pan’s friend Wendy … ‘The Lost Girls, which shows Wendy in erotic trysts and being observed by paedophiles, is the latest work by Alan Moore, the British graphic novelist behind V for Vendetta. He said that his novel was inspired by Peter Pan but he would not seek permission to use the Wendy character. “I don’t see that you can ban anything in this day and age,” he said.’

[google] The Devil’s Guide to Google — a dummies guide to fucking with Google … ‘Buy 2 million cheap domains, heavily interlink them, and wait until they go up in Google’s ranking. Start using them to sell Viagra.’

[comics] The Myth of Superman — Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers on Superman … ‘Other heroes are really only pretending: Peter Parker plays Spider-Man; Bruce Wayne plays Batman. For Superman, it’s mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent that’s the disguise — the thing he aspires to, the thing he can never be. He really is that hero, and he’ll never be one of us. But we love him for trying. We love him for wanting to protect us from everything, including his own transcendence…’

[tv] Scaryduck on Ben Elton: ‘I’m a pretty confident chap. So confident, in fact, that I am willing to lay a wager. And it is this: “I bet you ANY MONEY that at some stage before the next UK General Election, Ben Elton will stand up and declare his allegiance to David Cameron and the Conservative party.” I tell you, it’s going to happen…’

[bb7] Grace Dent’s Big Brother Blog

— well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’

[wikipedia] Un_Wiki — watch crap get deleted from Wikipedia in real time … ‘So I’m told that Scotty doesn’t know? Matt Damon sings this song? Octavio has a really hot girlfriend and gets none?’ [via Haddock]

[gtd] 43 Folders Podcasts — an archive of Merlin Mann’s audio accompaniments to the the 43 Folders website.

[comics] D’Blog of ‘Israeli — the blog of comic artist D’Israeli … ‘Want to know what being a comic artist is about? Packing, that’s what. I always start out with the intention of making some great new thing that’ll redefine the medium, but in the end, it’s always comes down to packing, cramming it all in.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]

[gtd] The Perfect Apostrophe — amusing podcast where Merlin Mann discusses his procrastination whilst abortively attempting to write an O’Reilly Life Hacks book.

[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#1 – #25) …

Alan Moore.
Grant Morrison.
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli.
Cerebus by Dave Sim and Gerhard.
St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
2000AD (between 1977 and 1989).
The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé.
Steve Bell.
The Playboy / I Never Lived You by Chester Brown.
Dan Clowes.
Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Various Artists.
Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Hate by Peter Bagge.
It’s A Good Life if you Don’t Weaken by Seth.
“Gaze into the Fist of Dredd!”
Peep Show by Joe Matt.
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau.
The Alec McGarry Stories by Eddie Campbell.
Daredevil.
Rupert the Bear Annuals (Probably the first comics I ever read).
Brendan McCarthy.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.

[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#26 – #50) …

Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III and Jay Geldhof.
Charley’s War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.
Hellblazer #27 – Hold Me by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
The Batman TV Series.
Shadowplay: The Secret Team by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz.
V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
Judge Dredd.
Stray Bullets by David Laptham.
Alan Moore on Swamp Thing with Various Artists.
Carlos Ezquerra.
Ghost World by Dan Clowes.
Evan Dorkin.
We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon by Hergé.
Brian Bolland.
American Flagg by Howard Chaykin.
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (the Manga and the Film).
Warren Ellis.
DC comics from the 60s with go-go checks on the cover.
The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kyle Baker.
The Incredible Hulk.
Hellblazer.
America by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil.
Lex Luthor.

[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#51 – #75) …

Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker.
Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
John Garrett.
The Time Machine (from 2000AD #324) by Alan Moore and JesÃºs Redondo.
The Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy and Role-Playing Club comics by Evan Dorkin.
Philip Bond.
All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Neilalien.
Eightball #22: Ice Haven by Dan Clowes.
Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
General Zod as played by Terrance Stamp.
Comics Letterers — Tom Frame, John Constanza, John Workman and Tom Orzechowski.
Issue 6 of Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III.
John Wagner.
Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.
The 600 page novelisation I did of the Judge Dredd story Apocalypse War which is now sadly lost to history.
scans_daily on LiveJournal.
Barry Allen.
The smell of old comics.
Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly.
Moon Knight by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.
Walter the Wobot.

[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#76 – #100) …

Rom the Spaceknight.
Dave’s Long Box.
The 1989 Batman Movie. directed by Tim Burton.
Winker Watson from The Dandy.
Mek-Quake.
Animal Man #26 by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog.
Mike McMahon.
Diesel Sweeties.
Dave McKean.
Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks.
Captain Haddock.
John Romita Jr.
The V.C.s
DR and Quinch by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.
Green Arrow.
Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu by Doug Moench and Various Artists.
Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Micheal Avon Oeming.
The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
The Watchmen Smiley Face Badge.
The Mighty Tharg.
Jack Chick’s Comics.
Robert Crumb’s Cross-hatching.
The Original Superman Movie.
DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli.
Chopper (aka Marlon Shakespeare).

[fruit] Innocent Drinks Blog — a blog from the popular Smoothies Company … ‘We need somewhere to share our thoughts and to give other people a chance to comment on what we’re doing. We need somewhere to post our pictures and tell our stories. We need somewhere to let off steam. We hear that there are these amazing things called blogs that help you do all of this.’

[comics] The Diary Of Ralph Dibny … the weblog of the superhero formerly known as Elongated Man … ‘It’s been a couple of weeks since the unpleasantness with the alternate earths and the killing and the shouting and all and my therapist thinks I should start keeping a journal of my inner thoughts and feelings. Well screw you Dr Willis. If you were any kind of therapist I wouldn’t respond to a serious global emergency by sticking a goddamned gun in my mouth. I blame you for the last three suicide attempts, you quack.’

[tech] 18 Days of Reckless Computing — How to Kill a Dell Computer in under three weeks … ‘I ask friends and relatives to forward me their nastiest-looking spam. In response, I start getting emails from my mom with discomforting subject lines like “Dating for kinky people!”‘

[history] Britain celebrates the Queen’s Silver Jubilee — on this day in 1977 … ‘All things considered, it was not a good day for the anti-monarchists. “We were going to have a proper meeting and then march to Buckingham Palace to proclaim the republic,” the organiser of one stuff-the-jubilee rally, Terry Liddle, observed. “But unfortunately it was too cold and only five people turned up.”‘

[news] Ten things I learned by reading the Daily Express — one man reads the Daily Express so you don’t have to … ‘7: There is insufficient police brutality.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]

[pi] The Mountains of Pi — the 1992 New Yorker article which influenced Darren Aronofsky’s Pi about two mathematicians who build supercomputers in their Brooklyn flat. ‘…the digits of pi may ramble forever in a hideous cacophony, which is a kind of absolute perfection to a mathematician like Gregory Chudnovsky. Pi looks “monstrous?” to him. “We know absolutely nothing about pi,” he declared from his bed. “What the hell does it mean? The definition of pi is really very simple — it’s just the ratio of the circumference to the diameter — but the complexity of the sequence it spits out in digits is really unbelievable. We have a sequence of digits that looks like gibberish.” “Maybe in the eyes of God pi looks perfect,” David said, standing in a corner of the room…’

[comics] New Comics Blog: Blog@Newsarama.

[comics] All-Suck Batman and Robin — a review of Miller and Lee’s All-Star Batman … ‘The thing is, the book IS immensely enjoyable. It’s like watching a really fascinating train wreck. I simply cannot tear myself away from reading it, and I’ve gotta tell you, I eagerly await the next issue as much as any of my favorite books.’ [via Metafilter]

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