- Windows 7’s “God Mode”? [via]
- You know, at this point, I’m even starting to wonder if van Gogh cut off his ear in the first place. [via]
- 100 Games Cupcakes. That’s a lot of cupcakes. [via]
- Not to worry, you can take books with you on flights into and out of Canada. You know, for now.
- And finally, Small Beer Press’ A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010 is now only $9.95!
news
Monday various
- Exploding Chewing Gum Kills Student. I have to admit, this sounded like a hoax or urban legend when I first read about it, but it seems distrubingly legit. At least, I didn’t find anything discounting the story at Snopes. [via]
- Well this is disappointing and surprising: the Internet Review of Science Fiction is closing after its February issue.
- Grant Morrison on what appeals to him about comics as a storytelling medium:
The essentially magical qualities of inert words and ink pictures working together with reader consciousness to create a holographic Sensurround emotional experience. What else?
- I’ve seen some talk about how 2010 is the real end of the past decade — that the decade is still going on, that is — since there was never a Year Zero. I think this is maybe true on a very pedantic, technical level, but I also think it’s a battle that was lost two thousand years ago, in Year Ten. When people talk about the last decade, they’re including 2000-2001, not miscounting. As Bad Astronomy points out [via], the argument that 2010 isn’t the start of a new decade suggests that “people [are] confused on how we delineate time.”
- And finally, Daniel’s Daily Monster:
Every week day (starting from 7th May 2009) I draw a little monster card to go in my son’s lunchbox.
These are just really delightful. [via]
Christmas various
- Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
- xkcd on the physics of Christmas. (For the record, I’m pretty sure Heisenberg celebrated the holiday.)
- What’s on the White House Christmas tree? (As if Glenn Beck didn’t have enough to ineptly rant and spume about over the holidays. [via]
- 15 Toys Not to Buy Your Kids This Christmas [via]
- I don’t know about you, but with the first part of The End of Time airing in the UK this weekend, it looks like I will be spending Christmas with a Dalek.
- I’m sure you’ve heard that Bob Dylan has a new Christmas album out. You may even have heard how awful it is. (And believe me, it is awful.) But now you can see for yourself. This may be the most wonderfully, horrible strange cover of “Must Be Santa” ever.
- And finally, Patton Oswalt on what may be my least favorite Christmas song ever.
Happy holidays!
Tuesday various
- Kurt Busiek: “[L]et’s face it, you never know when someone Peter Parker went to high school with is going to turn into a super-villain.”
- “The gold-coloured convertible turns heads on impoverished Cambodia’s roads — not least because of creator Nhean Phaloek’s outlandish claim that it can be operated telepathically.” Okaaaaayyy…
- Patrick Stewart on the legacy of domestic violence. [via]
- What if you went in search of your birth parents and one of them turned out to be Charles Manson?
- And finally, Toyota develops its own flower species. [via]
Tuesday various
- I actually don’t have a problem with new Winnie the Pooh stories by a different author, even if that means the introduction of a new character. I’m not in love with the idea, and would prefer to see something new — if Lottie the Otter is a worthy character, give her her own damn book? — but I’m more concerned with this being done to extend copyright, to prevent other new stories from being told.
- So if God didn’t create heaven and earth, that begs the question: who did? (From a Biblical standpoint, that is. If you take the there-is-no-God, the-universe-was-not-created route, obviously it’s sort of a moot point altogether.) This seems more like a case of semantics, but interesting semantics nonetheless. [via]
- “A van carrying beehives crashed into a truck on Monday, and huge swarms of bees broke free and stung the injured and rescue workers at the scene.” Yikes! As if the car crash wasn’t bad enough. [via]
- Next week, my mom and I are going to see Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! at Carnegie Hall. Tickets are sold out, but you still have time to bid on a pair (for charity) if you’d also like to be there.
- And finally, I really loved these Superhero Status Updates. [via]