- I see the dead Tauntaun wedding cake. And I see the zombie wedding cake. But what I don’t see is the obvious next step: the zombie Tauntaun wedding cake. Get on it, cake-makers!
- The movie(s) may still disappoint, but I’m genuinely excited by the new Harry Potter trailer.
- Martin Scorcese, meanwhile, has never seen the Harry Potter movies. I think they passed up a great opportunity to have him direct one of them. Seriously, can’t you see De Niro or Keitel as Voldemort?
- I’ve been saying this about emoticons for years and years. [via]
- And finally, today through Thursday marks the third Harlan Ellison Rare Book Purge. I’m tempted, though mostly by the stuff that’s a little outside of my price range. Say what you will about the man — and heaven knows there’s a lot to be said, both for and against — there’s no denying that he’s written some phenomenal work.
funny
Tuesday various
- Keith Phipps revisits Dick Tracy: “Inescapable in 1990, it’s become at best a hazy memory.”
- Doctor Hoo – Doctor Who In Owl Form. Because of course. [via]
- Well here’s something that might make me change my (mostly negative) thinking on 3D movies: Plan 9 from Outer Space in 3D?
- Great Literature Retitled to Boost Web Traffic [via]
- And finally, Winscape, the virtual window. [via]
Thursday various
- The Library of Congress has acquired the entire Twitter archive. This is an interesting announcement, though I do wonder about the privacy issues, particularly with protected tweets, and just how the LoC is going to make these available.
- Meanwhile, maps of the Batcave and Krypton. [via]
- Frankly, with all the potential health problems 3D televisions can apparently cause, I’m not sure I see their up-side.
- Still, if even Martin Scorcese is making a film in 3D, it’s safe to say the technology isn’t going anywhere just yet.
- And finally, last month, I shared a link to A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things. It’s only fair that this month I share Barack Obama Looking at Awesome Things. [via]
Tuesday various
- If you’ve ever wanted to search the entire 137-year archive of Popular Science, well, now you can. [via]
- I like these re-imagined Stephen King book covers. [via]
- And this: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1988. [via]
- Zombie apocalypse survival flowchart [via]
- And finally, Todd VanDerWerff on why it doesn’t really matter if all the mysteries on Lost don’t add up. Contains spoilers up to last week’s episode:
I certainly don’t want to tell any of you who are watching this final season and demanding more answers that you’re wrong to watch the show that way. Everyone watches TV for their own reasons. All I can do is tell you why I watch it, and I watch it because I want to see worlds I believe in, no matter how ridiculous, characters I care about, no matter how they end up mired in metaphysical conflicts from beyond our reality. I want to see a man realize that the only thing worth fighting for is the love of a woman he’s never met. I want to see another man who keeps chasing death because he thinks it’s the only way to find purpose. I want to see a doctor slowly realizing that there’s more to the strange events swirling around him in two worlds, a sad musician pull scientific genius out of thin air. The people on “Lost” aren’t real, obviously, but I want to believe they could be, that they’re living in a universe just around the corner. I want to see that smooth cut from Desmond grasping Penny’s hand to his eyes opening back on the Island, the look of joy on his face when it happens, a realization that some things matter more than others. Does it matter to me if the puzzle has its holes? No. Because what’s there is something I desperately want to see.
Monday various
- How to use a semicolon [via]
- A Muppet Wicker Man [via]
- A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things [via]
- Why DRM Doesn’t Work [via]
- And finally, how can you not like a short-short story that starts “Some time after sharks took over the skies…“?