- I’m with xkcd on this: fuck cancer.
- The Prescription to Save Ailing Superheroes. I can’t say I agree with everything here, but it’s an interesting article, particularly the argument against having Thor and Captain America both do double-duty by setting their characters up for The Avengers.
That said, I enjoyed both of them just fine as summer entertainment, and while I enjoyed X-Men: First Class no small amount either, I think it’s ultimately the least successful film of the three. (I haven’t seen Green Lantern.) Matthew Vaughn’s “auteur vision” seems cribbed from a few other places (like Bryan Singer’s first X-Men movie, and like Mad Men), and there’s some pretty iffy racial and gender issues at work in the film as well. But maybe that just underlines Pappademas’ main argument: at least the movie has some distinctive stamp to it, however flawed. [via]
- NY motorcyclist dies on ride protesting helmet law [via]
- Soap operas moving online. This will bear further watching. The news, not the shows. (God no.) [via]
- And finally, Who owns the copyright on a photo taken by a monkey? [via]
animals
Tuesday various
- Dyslexie, A Typeface Designed To Help Dyslexics Read. [via]
- Sure, it was silly and ridiculous when it happened on The Office, but it can be deadly serious when your GPS gives you the wrong information. [via]
Suddenly, that suggestion that mapmakers sometimes intentionally include false information to prevent copyright infringement sounds fairly irresponsible.
- On the pleasures of dining alone [via]
- Speaking of food, this may be the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen. And I watch Bizarre Foods pretty regularly. Seriously, it’s perfectly SFW, but you may want to exercise caution visiting that link, much less watching the video. It’s of a “dancing squid” in a Japanese restaurant, reportedly, and it seems like nothing more than cruelty masquerading as novelty.
I am not a vegetarian, and I’ve eaten squid. I quite enjoyed the calamari I had on Saturday evening, for instance. But I think we have an obligation towards the food that we eat, the animals that we kill to sustain us. If they give up their lives, they deserve a quick an merciful end. They do not deserve to be toyed with like this.
That said, if it’s fake…I’m not sure I feel a whole better about it. Although there’s a lot of evidence and commentary (here as well) to suggest it’s real.
- And finally, on a happier note, Monty Python member Graham Chapman isn’t going to let a little thing like being dead stand in the way of his making a new movie.
Thursday various
- I ate in an In n Out Burger when I was in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and I really liked it. Then again, I was maybe just really hungry. I certainly didn’t love it this much. That’s some crazy line.
- Cellphones Cause Bees to Swarm to Their Death, Says a New Study. Oh just great. [via]
- “A large proportion of iPad owners in the US have not used the device to read an e-book, a survey from media and publishing forecast firm Simba Information reveals.” That’s kind of sad.
- Well I guess I just stopped using Twitpic. [via]
- If summer movie posters told the truth. [via]
- And finally [via]:
Tuesday various
- Zadie Smith’s rules for writers:
When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would. [via]
- “All these worlds are yours except Europa…and possibly Titan.” [via]
- The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going To Miss Almost Everything:
It’s sad, but it’s also … great, really. Imagine if you’d seen everything good, or if you knew about everything good. Imagine if you really got to all the recordings and books and movies you’re “supposed to see.” Imagine you got through everybody’s list, until everything you hadn’t read didn’t really need reading. That would imply that all the cultural value the world has managed to produce since a glob of primordial ooze first picked up a violin is so tiny and insignificant that a single human being can gobble all of it in one lifetime. That would make us failures, I think. [via]
- So long and thanks for all the fish: Underwater Translator May Finally Let Us Talk to Dolphins. [via]
- And finally, My Little 11th Doctor [via]:
Squirrely
Today wasn’t exactly what I’d call an exciting, or even particularly interesting day. Oh sure, somebody wrote a weird and nasty comment at the Kaleidotrope website, and then this evening I saw the squirrel in the backyard. It seemed to be having trouble getting out of the backyard, which is the only reason I bring it up. Either the squirrel was injured that I couldn’t see, or it was just too young to be skilled at climbing fences. (It was on the smallish side.) I had our dog with us in the backyard, so I had to make sure, at the very least, those two didn’t cross paths.
But, really, besides those two not very exciting things, nothing much happened today.