- A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on. Mark Twain probably didn’t say that. Anatomy of a Fake Quotation [via]
- World’s Biggest Pac-Man [via]
- The sad final end of former Attack of the 50 Foot Woman star Yvonne Vickers [via]
- A Rare Look at Antarctica, 1911-1914 [via]
- And finally, No Country for Old Men cartoon trailer [via]:
cartoons
Monday various
- Roger Ebert on The Green Hornet:
Casting about for something to praise, I recalled that I heard a strange and unique sound for the first time, a high-pitched whooshing scream, but I don’t think Gondry can claim it, because it came from the hand dryers in the nearby men’s room.
- At first I thought it was like that urban legend about the ghost on the set of Three Men and a Baby, but apparently this one’s true: Han Solo does appear in many, if not all, episodes of Firefly.
If you’re wondering, Mal shot first.
- Alex Beam of the Boston Globe wonders — or maybe wondered back in November when I first saw this link — are new translations necessary? It’s an interesting question, but there’s no mention of instances when newer translations get things right, or make necessary corrections, or significantly change our understanding of a text. Proust’s famous novel is better translated as In Search of Lost Time, for instance, and newer translations of Camus’ The Stranger have called into question earlier readings of its famous opening lines.
So, short answer? Yeah, I think they’re still necessary. [via]
- Speaking of translations, the surprisingly intriguing story of why Uncle Scrooge McDuck is called “Dagobert” in Germany. [via]
- And finally….
The Justice League, re-imagined as a 1977 punk rock movie, based on an art challenge posed by Warren Ellis and by the exceptionally talented Annie Wu.
Monday various
- Who among us hasn’t wondered what hospitals do with circumcised foreskins? Perfectly SFW, by the way, though it does acknowledge the existence of both penises and circumcision. [via]
- The Simpsons will never ever go off the air, will it?
- Speaking of which: Doctor Who characters drawn in Simpsons style.
- Speaking of re-imagined characters: Star Wars characters as typography
- And finally, the Fantasy Novelist’s Exam. [via]
Tuesday various
- I feel totally vindicated now: Study: Doodling Helps You Pay Attention. [via]
- Professional wrestler Mick Foley — who I know mostly as Mankind, mostly because a friend of mine once dressed up as him for Halloween — talks about how Tori Amos changed his life. [via]
- Stan Lee won’t rest until he’s created a comic book character for every last man, woman, and child on the planet, and then some. Excelsior! [via]
- Ever wonder how ink is made?
- And finally, John Seavey on Pokemon:
It’s a show about a little boy who runs around capturing wild animals, locking them up in a tiny cage, and then pitting them against other wild animals in brutal gladiatorial contests. Really, I don’t think there’s anything you could do to make this one darker if you tried.
Thursday various
- “Due to strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this game in no way endorses a belief in the occult.” A History of Zombies in Video Games [via]
- Restaurant Workers Don’t Stay Home When Sick, Study Finds. Not too surprising, but still: yuck.
- Tens Of Thousands Of Walruses Crowd Ashore In Alaska Due To Melting Sea Ice. How far south do they have to get before we accept there’s global warming? Utah?
- You know, Katherine Heigl’s reputation as a shrill diva probably is overrated, if not unwarranted, but I suspect most of her movies have bombed at the box office simply because they’re really, really bad.
- And finally, Unicorn vs. Narwhal [via]