- 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.
magazines
Tuesday various
- Mother Jones on the death of literary magazines. To which my short answer is: same as it ever was, same as it ever was. I think there’s an argument to made that readership is down, but I don’t think that’s reflected in the number of different venues for writers. Some literary magazines will die off, or will be forced to adopt new business models — pay even less, change what they publish — but it seems like not a day goes by when another new magazine or journal doesn’t open up. [via]
- How to make a Michael Cera movie [via]
- Are there oceans of liquid diamond on Uranus and Neptune? [via]
- I’m amused that somebody thinks “man listens to loud music and neighbors complain” is somehow more newsworthy because the loud music was John Denver.
- And finally, I like this mashup of 2009’s top songs a whole lot more than the individual songs it’s made up of.
Thursday various
- Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean. Of course, it’ll be in a million years or so, but still. [via]
- I’ve been impressed with Geist ever since Heather got me a subscription to the magazine — to the point that I didn’t think twice about renewing my subscription, even as I let my New Yorker subscription lapse again. I like the magazine not least as physical object, so I was a little dubious about the idea of a digital edition. But I think this has a certain goofy charm; it certainly replicates the turning of magazine pages better than the typical e-reader. Check it out — and maybe even consider subscribing!
- I’ll admit, when I DVR a television show, I usually fast-forward through the commercials. Isn’t that the purpose for which the technology was first marketed? Apparently, I’m in a very small majority: nearly half of all DVR users don’t skip the ads. [via]
- Now that he’s been elected New Jersey’s governor, I think Monty Python definitely should sue Chris Christie. [via]
- And finally, though you’ve probably seen this all over the place, Joss Whedon’s open letter to The Terminator owners. That’s four zeroes after the one!