1) A captured ISIS car bomb that looks like something out of Mad Max. Video.
2) Mathematician teaches class on using geometry to become an expert witness in gerrymandering cases.
3) Pixar brings storytelling lessons to Khan Academy.
4) To be filed under: dudes doing stupid shit with GoPro cameras: Kayaking down a drainage ditch. Video.
5) Hieronymus Bosch action figures.
7) A reader remembers the thrill of picking up a little known book called FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.
1) Gameification gone mad: China has made obedience to the State a game.
2) Thirty of the Most Important Articles by People of Color in 2016.
3) New superhero idea: the paper airplane gun. Video. Shoots 120 planes/minute. Warning: terrible music.
4) Episode one of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing (1972). Video.
5) A CIA Operative’s Nine-Step Hotel Safety Checklist.
6) To follow up on the last entry: How to Book the Safest Room in a Hotel.
1) Fear of a Feminist Future. Includes He-Man dystopia/post-apocalyptic mockery.
2) How the Web Became Unreadable.
3) A data-driven paper using corpus analysis on page layouts in comics over the decades.
4) A hostage negotiator’s tips to be more persuasive.
5) From the same site: How to make people like you, from an FBI behavioral analyst. I’m going to keep this on hand for that mystery novel I’ve been meaning to write.
6) The Complex Psychology of Why People Like Things. An excellent discussion of all sorts of topics, covering genre, originality, hate-watching, and more.
1) Portugal’s Example: What Happened After It Decriminalized All Drugs, From Weed to Heroin.
2) The Man Who Invented Bookselling As We Know It.
3) Self-Destructive Beverages: a Guide.
4) Creating unconscious emotional responses with shapes. Video.
5) This house could be yours (if you’re looking for a shrine to terrible awful horrifying bad taste).
6) Carrie Fisher’s Legacy as a Script Doctor.
7) How to be Persuasive: Seven Secrets of a Hostage Negotiator
2) This cat is way into Hitchcock. Video.
4) “I’m a judge and I think criminal court is horrifying.”
5) The “Spiciest Tortilla Chip in the World” is Sold One Chip Per Package.
6) The Woman who is Allergic to Water.
7) Teen Creates App So Bullied Kids Don’t Have to Eat Alone.
1) Guy writes ridiculous requests in the “Special Instructions” space of his hotel reservation, and gets what he asked for. I hope he leave fat tips.
2) Woman Sues After Police Destroy Her Home During 10-Hour Standoff With The Family Dog.
3) An action figure for “Bulba Fett”.
4) Like Tanith Lee? Live/want to live in the UK? Her house is for sale. I wish I were successful enough for a beautiful house.
5) This longread is AMAZING: How parents of an elementary school child tried to frame a PTA mom for a crime she didn’t commit. Wow. For a crime/mystery reader like myself, this is wild. And it could have gone the other way so easily.
2) The best way to perform a “USB drop” hack. Technical, but interesting.
3) Saturday Evening Post covers from the DC Universe.
4) Brainstorming is a terrible way to create new ideas.
5) I don’t normally care about this sort of thing, but this mashup trailer combining The Dark Knight with Scott Pilgrim vs The World is a Batman movie I’d like to see. Video.
6) Gamer problems then and now.
7) The “Glarofon” is not a Pokemon; it’s a percussion instrument made from hand-blown glass tubes.
1) “The Most Satisfying Video in the World.” Video
2) Climate change releases Siberian anthrax from melting permafrost. 1500 reindeer dead.
3) Getty Images sends woman demand for payment for her own photo. She sues them for one billion dollars.
4) Japanese sword master tests his skills against an industrial robot.
5) Ten Unusual Libraries Around the World.
7) Test flight held for small jet modeled after Miyazaki anime.
1) The late great Jim Henson gives a puppeteering masterclass. Video.
2) Inside Portland’s Mystery Hole. #NotPorn
3) Exploding glass filmedin 343,000 fps slo-mo. Toward the end, this gets to be like the drug effects in DREDD.
4) A split screen comparing Los Angeles of the 1940’s with Los Angeles now. Video.
5) What type of low-budget films break out?
6) LA earthquake creates a seiche, a (potentially destructive) wave frequency that amplifies waves and ripples. Video.
7) Police 3D print a murder victim’s finger to unlock his phone.
1) ‘You are a coward’: Hate and misperceptions about substance abuse are broader than I thought
2) Gorgeous cars of the art deco era.
3) This pedal-powered roller coaster gets a massive NOPE.
5) How God Created Animals. <-- Funny 6) Investigative reporter goes undercover in N Korea to find out the truth about life there, writes book, sees book listed as a “memoir” because the reporter is a woman.