Elsewhere
Various and sundry links I've collected since time immemorial.
These links were collected back when I inserted links in a sidebar, not the main site chronology.
- The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody (on YouTube) One of the greatest things you will ever see this week.
- xkcd – Collections Pointing out a brilliant xkcd comic is about as useful as keeping track of the number of times you’ve exhaled today. But this one struck a chord with me.
- Verizon's Price Gouging David Pogue explains how Verizon and at&t squeeze a few extra dollars out of customers every time they accidentally hit the wrong button on intentionally poorly-designed phones.
- On Palm, Competition, and iTunes Sync Craig Hunter explains why Palm has no right to co-opt iTunes for the Pre. As for Farhad Manjoo, did you know that iTunes produces a fully accessible XML file of your entire music library? I didn’t.
- Adamantium Yes, I have my problems with Wolverine, but I’ll be damned if this shirt wasn’t made for me.
- Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. A good Wired article on the placebo effect, and how both the science of the effect and the effect itself have changed over time.
- First subpixel typeface, ever | Typophile Most interesting from a vision science perspective, the letterforms are composed of pixels colored in fairly vibrant shades of red, orange, and blue. Hardly any actual gray, despite appearances.
- YouTube – Barney Frank as the House's Rules Lawyer THE GENTLEMAN WILL SUSPEND!
- Wrist-Mounted Flame Throwers Extremely cool, but this is perhaps the only time in my life I’ve ever thought, “Man, where the HELL are your parents?”
- Shatner Does Palin Sarah Palin’s farewell speech as read verbatim by William Shatner. This could only happen on Conan.
- YouTube – Paper Towels Oh my God, you spilled some water? No. Not anymore. Paper towels.
- Recession, Succession, and Secession Nate Silver on why a country as geographically enormous and culturally diverse as the US has only once seriousy faced the threat of secessions.
- Flickr: The Official White House Photostream Official White House photographer Pete Souza’s regularly updated photos of the Obama Presidency. History in real time.
- The Vader Project Darth Vader’s helmet as reimagined by some of today’s best underground artists. Truly magnificent.
- The Ultimate Combo – T-shirt by David Soames If someone buys this for me in size Small, I WILL MARRY THAT PERSON.
- Dog Armor Oh. My God.
- A Guide to Massachusetts, by John Hodgman I had no idea that Hodgman was a Brookline native. His Guide is, of course, hysterically funny.
- Samurai Has Backbone Is an anagram for Barack Hussein Obama. Weird, huh?
- Football, Football, Football The giants of Charlton play host to the titans of Ipswich, making them both seem normal size!
- Mozilla Labs: Ubiquity Possibly the most useful thing to hit the internet since Google. Check out the tutorial video.
- Monopoly Repackaging | Andy Mangold Oh my GOD where can I buy this?
- 8-Bit Jesus A Christmas album that re-imagines classic holiday songs in the musical styles of classic videogames. ‘Carol of the Belmonts’ is just too perfect.
- Prop 8 – The Musical Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, and many more!
- 50 Facts About Barack Obama He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
- Vote. Enough said.
- 2008 Summer Paralympic Games – The Big Picture – Boston.com Excellent photos of the Beijing Paralympic Games. I wanted to write a full post about it, but I haven’t actually seen enough footage to offer decent comments. #25 is particularly inspiring.
- This Man May Die (1943) They just don’t make public service announcements like these anymore. Via the always transfixing Shorpy.com
- Les Misbarack Barack Obama meets Les Mis. ‘One Day More’ has never sounded so good.
- Heroin-Addicted Elephant Drug traders used heroin-spiked bananas to control a bull elephant. The world is a lot weirder than I previously thought.
- RIP, Don LaFontaine The unmistakable voice of so many movie trailers has passed away at 68. Everyone say ‘In a world…’, and follow it with a moment of silence.
- SMBC – Cat Heads Go on enough first dates and eventually it will come to this.
- Animal Identification Fail I mean LOOK at that HORSE.
- It’s Just Like Being There “There is nothing I hate more than a foregone conclusion.” Thus begins a damning, truthful diatribe on Sony’s handling of the PS3. One of the few days in history that Penny Arcade’s written post proves infinitely better than the comic.
- How to Say Nothing in 500 Words Paul Roberts’ hilarious essay on the pitfalls of freshman writing. Written 50 years ago and still just as true today.
- How Prozac Sent the Science of Depression in the Wrong Direction New evidence shows that depression may be the result of small-scale neurological atrophy, rather than a straightforward decrease of your happy chemicals.
- Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris combine their powers to bring a three-part THING to the web for a limited time. July 15-20. I’m there.
- One Possible Explanation Jack Thompson meets Broodax. I don’t think Penny Arcade has ever made a comic so tailored to my obsessions.
- I Love the 40s This 1942 photo of a female engine installer is surely staged for promotional purposes, but it’s still a phenomenally cool image, especially given the historical context. Could such a photo be taken today?
- My Stroke of Insight Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist, talks about the experience of having her stroke. I don’t agree with everything she says about the brain, but this is powerful stuff nevertheless.
- Mitchell and Web – Football Red Sox fans take note, you have as much to do with a victory over the Yankees as you did when Indiana Jones beat the Nazis.
- Brilliant New UK Coinage The new designs for the UK’s currency borrow from the Triforce, splitting the image of the Royal Arms across the seven coins. Meanwhile, we Americans gawk at a big purple 5 and call it innovation.
- Secret Skin Michael Chabon on the psychic appeal and physical paradox of a superhero costume. This feels like about half my childhood, right here.
- Jeep Liberty ‘Rock Me Gently’ Commercial Like all good advertising, I cannot. Get it. Out of. MY HEAD.
- The No-Access Road Zeldman on disability.
- Star Wars Guide to the Candidates On candidate Obi-Wan Paul-Obi: ‘While his anti-Empire foreign policy excites the Rebel Alliance, it’s pretty much a Jedi mind trick. He’s still a crazy old guy living in the desert.’
- The Superest Ongoing superhero drawing face-off between Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter.
- How to Fold an Origami CD Case Standard 8.5×11 paper, no glue, no scissors, no money wasted on jewel cases.
- Hand in Hand My general opinion is that ballet is unwatchable. Ballet as performed by amputees, however, is awesome and poignant.
- Words of Wisdom from Michael J. Fox ‘I can’t always control my body the way I want to, and I can’t control when I feel good or when I don’t. I can control how clear my mind is. And I can control how willing I am to step up if somebody needs me.’
- Adorable Santa Claus ‘Get A Mac’ Ad You just want to put them in your pocket and love them and pet them and call them George.
- Shutting Themselves In
- Did Antidepressants Depress Japan?