Link roundup

1. One of Drew Magary's readers talks about meeting Randy Savage:

We were met backstage by some WWF people who were leading us into the locker room area, and we were brought to Randy to say hello. There were a bunch of other wrestlers around, which was really cool but there was one problem: the good guys were hanging out and being cordial to the bad guys! Seeing good guys like Brett Hart sharing laughs with bad guys like Jake "The Snake" Roberts was almost traumatic to see; like seeing your Dad french kiss your aunt. It simply wasn't supposed to happen.

I was sad, scared and confused. I gathered up the courage to ask why the Good Guys were friends with the Bad Guys. Randy said, "We're not. We're just tricking them. You'll see."

After this, a WWF rep was showing us some other areas of the backstage. I don't remember what we saw, but I know when we circled back to the area where Randy was, all of the wrestlers I had seen before were back in character. Bad guys were yelling at Good Guys about how they were going to kick their butt and Good Guys were holding each other back from attacking the bad guys.

This. Was. Awesome. It IS real! Of course it is!

Randy didn't know me too well, but he cared enough about a young fan and professional wrestling to keep the illusion and innocence alive.

2. Crooked forest. Via.

3. If you've experienced problems commenting, there's apparently a problem affecting some users. (It'll be pretty sad if Blogger stops being reliable - - that's really all it has going for it.)

Image roundup

Monster dog.




Finally, the Black Eyed Peas' secret origin revealed.




Ghost mountain. Via.





World War I-era ship's camouflage. Via.




Widescreen wallpaper-sized still I cropped from one of the new Star Tours videos.




Chicago, surrounded by fog.




Abandoned mill in Sorrento, Italy.

Buffoonery turns free kick into a goal

Watch as two soccer players trip each other to distract the other team during a free kick. Via.

Image roundup

Do you want this octopus to have fewer arms?



Deer escaping a flood.



Wedding plea for help.

Link roundup

1. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews Mortal Kombat.

2. The Worst Internet Intern Interview Ever. Via.

3. FYI, don't plan on mass-producing and selling Portal fan art.

Link roundup

1. From Drew Magary's latest NSFW and funny, but probably offensive column:

I gotta go to church more often then. I think churches operate as the epicenter of most American daydreams. I can't sit in a church for more than five minutes without imagining a flock of vampires crashing through the stained glass window, and I have to stab them all in the heart with a steel crucifix. I'm pretty sure my visions are exactly like that new Paul Bettany movie.

I've been at ceremonies where they do the whole "Do you reject Satan?" thing, and it's impossible to not think of The Godfather at that moment. I also wish they had an effigy of Satan right at the altar that you could stab or shoot with a crossbow. Why not add a bit flourish to the ceremony?

2. Robin Hanson:

What if the airline industry lobbied to end the practice of routinely investigating the cause of each airline crash? After all, if there is no investigation, it will be hard to show an airline was at fault. You might imagine there’d be a public outcry. But in 1970 the US medical profession did essentially the same thing, and few complained:

Today, hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s. … Autopsies play a critical role in helping to advance understanding of the progress of a disease and the effectiveness of various treatments. At the same time, they may identify medical conditions that clinicians and high-tech imaging miss or misdiagnose. …

In 1998 the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that autopsy results showed that clinicians misdiagnosed the cause of death up to 40 percent of the time.

3. The Batman by Aragones statue I posted yesterday is available for preorder at the BBTS for $80.

Image roundup

A few gems, mostly spotted at Reddit:


Middle school classroom/cabinet of wonders.



Petra, Jordan.



Fleeing a dragon.



If you see something, skate something. Via.



Deadly bird.

Image roundup

A few gems from Reddit:


Tiny turtle.



Portal poster.



If you look over a typist's shoulder in Doom 3, he'll notice.



Rap enthusiast.

Free Twilight-themed inhaler if you live near a coal plant

From the Coal Cares website:

Why Free Inhalers? Because COAL CARES.

Coal Cares™ is a brand-new initiative from Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company, to reach out to American youngsters with asthma and to help them keep their heads high in the face of those who would treat them with less than full dignity. For kids who have no choice but to use an inhaler, Coal Cares™ lets them inhale with pride.

Puff-Puff™ inhalers are available free to any family living within 200 miles of a coal plant, and each inhaler comes with a $10 coupon towards the cost of the asthma medication itself.

There's printable activity pages for kids, too.

(It's a hoax by the Yes Men.) Via.

Rick the Adventure Sphere dialog and t-shirt design (Portal)

Late in Portal 2, you gain the assistance of a robot known as Rick the Adventure Sphere ("designed for danger"). It's a pretty heated moment, so the natural inclination is to swiftly complete the task at hand, but if you take your time, Rick says one great line after another, including singing an adventure song and suggesting catch phrases once you beat the boss. You can enjoy his dialog in the video above. And there's a brand new t-shirt design by up for vote at Threadless:



Finally, speaking of Portal, here's Erik Wolpaw's recent NYU lecture:



Via.

*Portal 2 is 40% off at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Jill Myles has a funny Twitter handle:

I write under three pseudonyms for Pocket Books, Berkley Heat, and self-publishing. I guess I need a hobby.

2. "Def Leppard to release album of rock lullabies for babies." You can preorder Dreamin' With Def Leppard at Amazon. Via.

3. I think I might have posted this before, but it's hilarious so . . . clueless secretary asks talented (and busy) graphic designer to create a lost cat poster for her.

Image roundup

A few gems from Reddit:


Mama bear and her cubs one year later.



Monster house.




Fennec fox.



Owl hates being washed.



Google gets some weird questions.

Wow, what is this kitten so frightened of?

Video of a kitten versus what must be the most frightening tennis ball in the world. Via.

Link roundup

1. Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey gives his baseball bats geeky names, including Orcrist from The Hobbit and "hrunting" based on Beowulf.

2. I didn't read the article for fear of spoiling the headline:

'Mad hatters' gang of middle-aged women blamed for Detroit crime spree

Police in Detroit are hunting a gang of middle-aged women, nicknamed the "Mad Hatters", who they blame for a string of robberies, purse snatching and fraud.

Via.

3. My local theater doesn't show pre-movie commercials anymore, but the theaters that do are having trouble filling the slots:

Part of the reason for the shortfall, according to the firm's CEO, is lack of advertising from Japanese auto and electronics makers who are suffering following March's earthquake and tsunami, as well as the National Guard, which no longer needs to advertise as much because high unemployment numbers push so many candidates its way.

Long exposure of a takeoff

Long exposure of an airline takeoff:




Long exposure of a cat:



Via.

Image roundup

A few gems from Reddit:


The future of Google.




Test answer.




Some products sell themselves.




Anyone know who makes this shirt?




Duct tape to the rescue.

Link roundup

1. Penelope Trunk explains how she's helping her teenage neighbors start a business:

I told myself I will send them lots of links so they learn about entrepreneurship. But the boys did not have computers. Further, they do not even get homework that involves computers because not all the kids in the local high school have computers at home. They do research for reports only from books in the library.

Then it occurred to me that they don’t read. They can read, they just don’t read.

“What was the last book you read?” I asked Zach.

He couldn’t remember. Then he remembered: “The Scarlet Letter, for school.”

“It sucked,” said Mitch.

I told the boys that entrepreneurs read. They have to read. The problem is that if you don’t read you don’t know where to start reading. I decided we’d have to start with reading about sex, to keep them interested. I gave them Dennis Cooper. They liked it. After a while I slipped in articles about entrepreneurship.

Much more at the link.

2. Not too surprising that the Dark Tower movie/tv series is starting to look DOA.

3. Beautiful pictures from Disney's maiden cruise to Alaska. And speaking of Disney, you can win passes to see the new Star Tours.

Link roundup

1. Another great storytelling lecture by Jim Shooter, utilizing a Fantastic Four story drawn by Jack Kirby.

2. The secret to Pixar's success? "Pixar seems to have realized that if you can get the dad to come to the movie and love the movie, the whole family will come. Maybe more than once. And they'll probably buy the DVD and the video game, too."

3. Gawker calls Jesse James "a voltron composed of every bad ex-boyfriend in the world."

Neil Gaiman vs. Matt Dean, the comic

Just the first two panels in this comic about Neil Gaiman and Minnesota House majority leader Matt Dean. Via.

I'm ashamed of what I've done for a Klondike Bar

I'm ashamed of what I've done for a Klondike Bar. Apparently an ecard, but their search function never works for me. Via.

Here's the link, thanks David.