1) Notch, creator of Minecraft, is planning a new “hard science fiction” space exploration game. Sadly for James Nicoll, the early promotional materials mention a cloaking device.
4) Top 10 Dying Industries in the United States.
5) If Darth Vader had been a good father.
6) Nazis hire official lobbyist to lobby Congress.
7) Murals in Minneapolis that will soon face the wrecking ball.
1) A history of the McFarlane/Gaiman Miracleman lawsuit.
2) Trompe l’oeil graffiti vanishes Egyptian military barrier
3) A working scientific calculator, built from Minecraft blocks.
4) Two words: Explosive. Polymerization. (Video)
5) Eight “forgotten” live-action children’s shows from the eighties. I doubt “Small Wonder” has been forgotten, but “My Secret Identity” is the only other one I remember (but I’m a bit old for this time period)
6) Heroic Goofballs: Aardman takes on DC. Video
7) An infographic showing the last words of executed inmates in Texas.
1) Deleted for potential malware. Try this instead: Westeros in Minecraft: Video.
2) Motherfucking Bike: Music video for the lol. My wife and I are/have been bike commuters, but we have never done anything like these guys, I swear.
3) My Little Golden Book About ZOGG
4) LED light gives off more energy in photons than it takes in as electrons. I don’t *really* understand this, but I’m pretty sure it means I’ll be getting a lightsaber soon.
5) Toy Shining “Heeeeerrre’s Woody!” via Keith Brunkard
6) 19 Really Bad Family Feud Answers.
7) Hunger Names.
1) Rick Santorum quotes as New Yorker cartoons.
2) The 50 most brilliant, obnoxious, or delightfully sociopathic Facebook posts of 2011.
3) The TSA’s biggest success stories of 2011, and what it means.
5) War Horse: An Illustrated Review
6) Charles Stross makes some predictions for the future. This worked out so well for Heinlein…
7) 10 Stubborn Body Myths That Just Won’t Die, Debunked by Science
1) Massive 1,100+ year old Maya site discovered in Georgia’s mountains Or maybe not?
2) Do the FAA’s assertions about ebook reading during take off and landing stand up to scrutiny?
3) Images from one of the most remote and remarkable landscapes on Earth: Dallol Volcanic Crater.
4) Area 51 Alien Travel Center: a soon-to-be-built sci-fi themed brothel in Nevada. Finally, we know what will empty the last few regulars from rec.arts.sf. Anyway, I wonder if building codes will require the vats be installed on the first floor.
5) How to deal with slow walkers. Video.
6) Instead of helping you defeat an alien brood queen, this exoskeleton simulates the effects of old age for young people.
1) We Watch It For You: Rage of the Yeti. OMG, why didn’t anyone tell me this exists!
2) Walking through doors causes forgetting, study determines.
3) Ultra-serious Amazon.com reviewers take on pepper spray.
4) Reuters Best 100 Photos of 2011. Some of these are gorgeous. Some of these are difficult to look at.
5) Famous paintings with irreverent new titles.
6) “Twe-twe-2016!” A truly terrible trailer for a movie from Ghana. So awful and so compelling. Video.
1) Just in case you’re incapable of expressing emotion on your own…
2) A nice Dresden Files animation. Video. (link updated)
3) Voldemort didn’t go to a better place.
4) The ten worst lines in sf films.
5) Edible Hogwarts.
6) I can’t believe I didn’t think of this. PostSecrets from fictional characters (and pets) Brilliant!
7) “Damn it feels good to be a Lannister.” Video.
1) A kiddie mecha for real! Video.
2) George Lucas as OLDBOY? Video.
3) Repulsive Soviet monument rebooted.
4) The 100 best first lines of novels.
5) In my non-academic interest in book trailers, I offer this: Video. Graphic novels make it easy to be lazy with a trailer, but these guys did something more.
6) Nathan Fillion, photobomber.
7) A word cloud showing the 500 most common passwords. Those passwords make up 79% of a database of 6 million users. And I can’t believe that one of them is “8675309”. via @RodRamsey
2) The first five Harry Potter novels abbreviated in comic form.
3) Since when did diligence become a psychiatric disorder?
4) Japanese TV show pranks a man with a haunted mirror. Video. I’m a bad person for laughing as hard as I did, especially after things got crazy. Be sure to watch the whole thing.
6) “I will tell you a secret to make you stand out.”
7) “Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says” Oh god, for once, read the comments on this “article.” Let’s be CLEAR this is not a VADER victory but a victory of our boys in white, not to mention the leadership of Lord Tyrannus the Count Dooku who started the manhunt in the first place. LOL via Jay Lake
