1) Best Worst ad placement ever.
2) Marketing ebooks in brick-and-mortar stores. This is pretty damn cool. Too bad I don’t have any of this tech.
3) To respond to a previous Randomness: The United States of Awesome. Fucking Delaware.
4) Wall decorations that prove you’re a total grownup. “I simply haven’t met a boy yet who interests me! And until I do, I’d rather walk alone than date just anyone!”
5) “Hand monster!!!” Video.
6) Why I’ll never eat at a Chick-Fil-A.
7) Axe Cop… The Movie!
1) A dating service for people who like white hats with anchors.
2) A hotel that’s free to stay at… but it’s decorated with beach trash.
3) You should date an illiterate girl.
4) From boiling water to instant fog. Video. Now that’s cold.
5) Casting the 1940’s version of Harry Potter films. Too many of the biggest stars of the day, but fun to think about.
6) Phelps family protests the movie RED STATE. A counter-protest breaks out. Some NSFW text.
1) A Wrinkle in Time in 90 seconds. Video. So. Effing. Cute.
2) MEOW. Video. Zombies uber alles, yeah?
3) A jury of your peers, not a jury of your purrs. I deeply regret writing that previous sentence.
4) Before and after photos of the flooding in Australia. Mouse over the pics to change them.
5) Why I don’t pay much attention to reader reviews.
6) “Impossible” physics w/out special effects. Video. Trompe l’oeil made awesome.
7) Edgar Allen Pooh.
1) “That’s why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child.” Quality parenting advice from Amy Chua. More from NPR. And NMA TV in Taiwan offers one of their video parodies.
2) An alternate ending for RETURN OF THE JEDI: Video. At least we could have avoided the Ewok party at the end. via Tor.com
3) I’ve seen a couple of reviews that deserved this treatment. Video. via James Nicoll
4) Should you work for free? A flowchart.
5) The cost of torrented books, with numbers. The problem is, you can never get people to believe that what they’re doing is causing harm in a way that matters, because they refuse to see themselves as bad people. They just can’t imagine themselves that way.
6) Top ten fonts for book designers.
7) What is it about social media that makes people write these ridiculous articles?
1) Commissioner Gordon is a Jerk.
2) What’s it like living in Playboy Mansion? Apparently, the answer is: rigidly schduled.
3) Drill Close to Reaching 14-Million-Year-Old Antarctic Lake.
4) Hoping for a big time Hollywood deal? Hah!
5) Muslims protect Christians.
6) Don’t buy your comics from this asshole.
7) “Inland tsunami” sweeps away cars in Toowoomba, Australia. Video part one. Video part two.
1) Five skiffy death sports you can host in your own home. Reader, I lol-ed.
2) “America sends its best hunks to save the Earth.”
3) Dwayne’s Photo, a little family-owned shop in Parsons, Kansas, is closing down. They were the last processor in the world who could handle Kodachrome film, which Kodak stopped manufacturing in 2009, and now their equipment is going to be sold for scrap.
4) When are we happy? When are we not happy? Video. This one is long, but very, very interesting.
5) How It’s Made: PASS-ta. Video.
6) Robots Speak Out Against Asimov’s First Law Of Robotics.
7) The Most Epic Use of Google Docs Ever (aka Google-doc-based animation). Video.
1) Bronte Sisters Power Dolls! Video.
2) Burglar posts a photo of himself w/ stolen loot on his victim’s Facebook page. The cops were notified, but said burglary is such a low priority they wouldn’t bother with the case. Luckily for the victim, his dad writes for the Washington Post.
3) How A Christmas Story should have played out.
4) Rudolph (You Don’t Have To Put On The Red Light) Video.
5) The True Meaning of Christmas at Everything is Terrible. Video.
6) Santa Clause is Coming To Town, recut as a horror movie trailer. Video.
7) Comics writer Bob Haney’s version of Batman Saving Christmas.
2) The Gawker Media security breach gives us a chance to see the 13 most common passwords.
3) Ten building converted to bookstores. Very cool photos. via @victoriastrauss
4) Wikileaks cables turned into comics.
5) Eleven weird D&D questions from The Dragon’s “Sage Advice” column.
6) Why you should never fry gnocci. Video.
7) Yogi Bear is like District 9 but way more depressing. A really interesting review of a really uninteresting movie.
1) The Suck Report. WTH, internet?
2) Musical PVC. Love it. Video.
3) Apparently, the latest thing in NY is “Crack Pie.” Meh. Call me when someone adds bacon.
4) “Warning, overfeeding can cause some pigeons to become aggressive.” Video.
5) The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Boo Boo. Video.
6) How the London riots demonstrate the tactics of ancient warfare. NSFW because of language.
7) All the tricks and stunts this dude does are awesome, but it’s the over-the-top music that makes it. Video.
7+1) The World According to Freshman Comp Papers (a poem)
^ WordPress turns that into an emoticon if I put the number 8. That’s why these always have seven entries. UNTIL NOW
9) Man makes his Christmas light display into an interactive game for his neighbors. Video.
So, my website was down for most of the day. Apparently, my excellent host site, sff.net, has been getting customer service runaround from Verizon. No matter! It is back!
I revised the hell out of a really difficult scene this morning, and only after I was done writing for the day did I realize it needed more work. Ah, well. I also took a long damn walk, returned books and DVDs to the library, and made split pea soup. And bread. And other good things.
Anyway, this has been a good and busy day, but I want to talk for a moment about last night. We watched A Town Called Panic. Here’s the trailer. (Facebook users will have to click through)
It was crazy. As the trailer shows, the plot kicks off when Indian and Cowboy realize that it’s Horse’s birthday, and they don’t have a gift. From there it completely spins out of control and becomes completely insane and hilarious. We loved it. The stop-motion technique was wonderful–not trying to be realistic at all, which was just fantastic.
Watch it! You will be glad you did (sez I).
