It's been so long...

... so long since I've done a proper link dump, I can't even remember how to do it! I long ago stopped reading other blogs due to time issues, and cut down my online activity to the bare minimum of what I thought I could manage quickly. I'm not sure I know how to find all my sources I used to read. It's so strange to have time again!

Ok, don't panic. I still have interests. I just haven't been able to share them.

Let's start with Popular Science's article on better batteries that were made by accident. Sometimes I think all the best discoveries must be by accident, considering how many cool things are created by experiments not working like expected. I think it's important to realize that failure in science is almost as useful, sometimes way more useful, than "success". You come up with your hypothesis, you test it, and something is wrong... sometimes that's the moment real discovery starts. In any case, these batteries, with the potential to last 400 times longer than current batteries before needing a charge, are extremely promising.

Drones are the new UFOs. Apparently, lots of pilots who hit things now are thinking those things are drones. That's an interesting twist of perceptions. Having attempted to fly a drone and failed (with a long hike involved to find and collect the drone) I have my doubts that most small drones can get up high enough to threaten planes. Larger drones... you would expect the operators to have more of a clue. Then again, not all drone operators have shown off brains so far.

Southern Fried Science enjoys some Aquaman science. Love it!

Speaking of comics, this report of sexual harassment at DC is very depressing. But I'm hoping by spreading this information, more people will have questions and maybe something will be done about it. I can dream. Comics aren't exactly friendly to women, yet. Not quite as bad as some segments of gaming, but the sexism and boys club attitude is there.

I'll finish up with a piece from Atlas Obscura on pirated research libraries. In short, journal costs can be so high that, in order to cite other recent studies, some broke scientists are turning to pirated documents to get what they need to help science progress. Of course, read that last line to see that it's not all about research.

I still maintain that copyright has been extended so long that it is now meaningless to the current generation. If copyright lasts a lifetime or longer, and it does, then nothing produced today will ever go into the public domain. This makes things that were possible only a couple of generations ago impossible, including a new Disney producing movies using classic public domain stories. I think there should be copyright, and I think it should be renewable, but I don't think it should be automatic after the first term, say 10 years. And renewal should cost some fee to maintain the database of copyrighted works. That means that works that aren't making money for the copyright holder are more likely to fall into the public domain where they can be remixed and turned into new works.

But if we continue the way we have, copyrights are basically going to become a speedbump to cultural progress, bankrupting artists who can't afford obscene fees to use music that should be in the public domain. Corporations will own most copyrights and come down hard on people who violate them, while individual authors won't be able to protect their own work from pirates because of the costs of litigation. For a reason why eternal copyrights are stupid, read Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

The End of Holy Pasta Week

Spaghetti with meatballs tonight, of course. R'Amen.

Another Linkdump

Comic Book Legends Revealed #275: Deadshot Revamp, the Sentinels, and Shuster's Canadian roots.

The Library of Congress has opened up 222 boxes' worth of files and papers on Fredric Wertham, a name comic book fans know well.

Yuck euwww gross yuck ack this is almost enough to put me off eggs forever... I am beginning to think finding a local CSA and getting farm fresh is the only way to go.

Perhaps we need to Eggs-Ter-Min-Ate the bad farms?

It's impressive how we think of ancient Greece as white statues, but they were painted, sometimes quite luridly.

How to replace six vital documents. These are the documents that you ought to have in a fire-proof safe if you've got one.

How to react to a controversial court opinion. Not for intelligent people.

Slashdot reports on a developer who doesn't want Pirate Bay to remove the torrent of his pirated software. In fact, he demands that people laugh at the guy who cracked it, and asks for a better crack to be made available.

Where to get the best free education online. So you don't get credits for it, but you at least learn! Apparently Bill Gates likes Khan Academy for teaching his kids math.

Someone thinks they've found Amelia Earhart's plane.

Farewell to the Star Hustler, and may he sail the stars in joy.

The stupid, it burns! Idiots think a guy is Muslim because of his name. But wait until you read what his name is and why these people, who have obviously never read the Bible, think it is Muslim.

Basement cat is illogical.

Pug for the in-laws.

Sep 15-19 is "Holy Pasta Week"
Plan your menus now.

Linkdump

Want some original artwork but can't make it to a convention? Periscope Studio has an Etsy page (warning: some artistically adult content). Some really good artists and their art here. Check it out.

Lovely Two-Page Usagi Yojimbo story.

Comic Book Legends Revealed #262: Iron Man's Nose, Alan Moore as Sith Lord, and Elliot S! Maggin.

Space Jam is a Mayan Tale.

Rachel Maddow gets a lightsaber. Just watch the video clip, you can ignore the rest.

Chemical bombs are real.

Ken Jennings on Wikipedia's lack of authority. I ran into this recently when a vandal changed Aquaman's Wikipedia entry, and an unrelated podcasts read the vandalized entry as if it was true, without any question. If it's on Wikipedia, verify it before you believe it. Wikipedia is a good place to start researching, but it's not to be trusted.

J.L. Bell on piracy. I like it when companies subvert the act of online piracy to their own ends.

Darryl Cunningham is starting a new strip about Homeopathy. His strip about Wakefield recently made the rounds. Darryl is one of the good guys.

How Avenue Q is dealing with Gary Coleman's death.

And to finish this post: a pug for the in-laws.

Yar Me Mateys

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Argh, may ye all be having a merry day t'day, me hearties. If ye be needin' help with your piratitude, Check out ye official website, ye scurvy dogs!

Monday Morning Linkdump

Comic Books Legends Revealed #209: The Yellow Kid.

Comics are educational.

Eight ways that comic book fans and shops are stereotyped on TV. I'd only seen two of them, personally.

Want.

DRM turns users into pirates. It's pretty simple, really. If your product doesn't work because it's got some crappy "protection" on it, people will look for a copy that works.

Fixing a space telescope? No problem! Playing a DVD? Problem. One expects it wasn't a case of crappy DRM...

Just because a check has "cleared", doesn't mean it's actually a valid check. Oops.

There are monsters in the water.

Wired reports on hobbyists building "fully functional" Wall-E replicas. By "fully functional" do they mean they pick up garbage?

Yup, you can find anybody on Facebook.

LOLCat Theology.

I Seriously Thought This Was Photoshopped

Is It Wednesday?

From Web to Print, John Klima at Tor.com looks at two webcomics making the jump.

This MetaFilter entry takes me back. I played a LOT of those old games, and Defender of the Crown was a favorite (once I figured out how to joust).

Three-Armed Romance. Be sure to read the author's take.

The Doctor Who theme played on Tesla Coils. In other Doctor Who news, is Zimbabwe's Mugabe holding missing Doctor Who episodes? Um. Sure. And more on Doctor Who: Morgan reports that Doctor Who wins international Visual Effects Award. And I'm with M, the show was constantly innovating, which is why many of the effects look dated now. They did a lot with very little. Speaking of little, Dalek found in pond.

The Nine Weirdest Public Service Videos Ever Made. And they are BIZARRE.

Filesharing witnesses wife gets flowers from filesharers. The whole Pirate Bay trial has been a mockery, as made clear by the accused remotely fixing server problems during the trial.

Why We Immunize. Even if you don't read the rest, READ THIS. And then, if you have time, read this comprehensive overview of the entire antivaccination movement that pretty much demolishes their arguments from top to bottom. As I've said before, I have no problem with people choosing to not vaccinate their children. However, if they are unvaccinated, they should be kept apart from vaccinated children so they cannot damage herd immunity. If they catch polio or measles or whatever, the unvaccinated should die alone, not risk children who were vaccinated but for whom the vaccines didn't work.

More LOLCat Theology.

Pug for the in-laws.

Holy Pasta Week Cleans The Plate

Sep 15-19 is "Holy Pasta Week"
ARRRRRRRR

Some good science blogs you ought to visit if you like scientific topics: The Panda's Thumb, Respectful Insolence, Pharyngula, and my personal favorite: Bad Astronomy.

And, yeah, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day as well. Another excuse for a party! That pirate up there is of course Black Jack the modern pirate, who battled the Golden Age Aquaman. Yeah, gotta tie it into my hobbies somehow.

Ramen.

A Linkdump

The sad news of The Real World. I haven't acknowledged this yet, but I've been well aware of the Greenberger's loss. I'd been following Bob Greenberger's blog, and hoping Robbie would pull through.

The water myth. Not everyone needs tons of water while exercising. I think the final sentence really sums the article up. Runners have died of too much water, but none from dehydration.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2008 Results.

And also, the 2012 Beloit College Mindset List.

I have visions of baby sea turtles swarming around poor diners' legs.

Websnark looks at Starslip Crisis, one of my new favorite webcomics. I met Straub at Emerald City Comicon, and have been faithfully reading his strip ever since.

The Pirate Bay renamed itself temporarily for the Olympics.

Shredding isn't environmentally friendly. So shred carefully.

That's a new version of the ferries are running.

For the in-laws: The pugs missing after a robbery were safely found. Whew. The Seattle 911 blog indicated that she wouldn't press charges, as long as they came back safely.

And lastly, my Evil Twin will be trying to ride her bike 150 miles for charity this September. If you want to help Lisa in the MS 150 then donate here. She's trying to get $500 in donations so she can get a jersey, and thanks to current donations she's made the limit she needed to be allowed to ride.

I'm Home on Friday Night

...waiting for Torchwood to download, despite already having it spoiled by an idiotic RSS feed that ignores spoiler cuts.

Doctor Who Quiz. Can YOU answer all thirty questions? I bet most of you cannot.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #149: Gil Kane, Barry Windsor-Smith, and the Masked Marvel.

Slate tackles Wertham.

Tracking the link between Black Sabbath and Iron Man.

Duck gets court order for protection against a young man that attacked her with a pellet gun.

That's one scary looking fish.

Do you find barcodes boring? The Japanese don't.

Trying to save the government money doesn't work when the government is too stupid and rulebound to take advantage.

Health News: Who says you need eight glasses of water a day? It's a myth, just drink when you are thirsty.

Danger at Fenway as a student is attacked by a hawk.

I'd go postal if I lost my internet service like the entire Navajo Nation is about to because they were apparently double-billed and refuse to pay extra.

Pirates of Somalia seize a yacht, capturing 30 crew members and apparently holding them hostage. Of interest: "The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years."

Remind me, how many arrows makes an arm? Aztec math code is cracked.

Google Street View being sued for driving up a private driveway.

Pugs for the in-laws.

Links

Take a look at 13 Blog Clichés and tell me how many I'm guilty of here on Bloggity.

Huh. If/when I have a baby, I hope to echo this experience.

Stolen Avengers Artwork found in Coloring Book picked up at a garage sale.

Yet another reason to not go to the movie theater. I'd rather watch movies in private than have theater owners assume I'm a criminal and film me.

Respectable science blogger PZ Myers is sued by crackpot writer for daring to present a negative review of a book. I really want to read more about this one. It's so utterly insane, there must be more to it.

Mike Wieringo collective memory.

More Seattle trivia. That high temperature... it was just after I got married and moved into a tiny and utterly non-ventilated apartment. We stayed at my in-laws air conditioned condo a few days.

Making public domain information public. What a concept, eh?

Biofuel... better processes can make it cheaper, and greener.

LEGOKitty!

Massive Linkdump, YAY!

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #114.

Bratz are the X-Men for girls. Thanks, Lea.

The mayor of San Diego is a complete jerk.

The Comics Reporter's Collective Memory of San Diego Comic Con 2007. Newsarama San Diego Linkages.

Dorothy has Demographics.

Scholastic Fairs Pick Up Amelia Rules! I used to buy TONS of books through Scholastic and such. My father never denied me books.

Jim Rugg draws Aquaman. Oh, and some other news, too. Check out Jim Rugg's LiveJournal. Scroll down to see the Aquaman images, or click the following links: The Plain JLA, Three Aquaman Images 2, Three Aquaman Images 1.

J K Rowling is a great storyteller, but sometimes her writing could use a bit of work. This is just one example of why some people like me (English grads) pull out hair even while we enjoy Harry Potter.

Coyotes and Google Maps.

Oh dear. Just watch the vid. Heh.

Ah! This article explains why I feel hungry after drinking chocolate milk or hot cocoa (both very rich in calories). Piece by piece we understand ourselves better.

Man, I really want The Popeye DVD Set. Although it's incredibly unlikely, maybe some rich person is slumming in my blog and will buy it for me from my Amazon Wishlist. I know, not gonna happen, but a girl can dream.

Every single piece of DRM invented has been cracked. Why keep wasting money on useless security devices instead of making products better and cheaper so people won't be tempted to pirate them.

Singing about Mathematics.

Harry Potter and the Digital Pirates

Yup, the news is out on a dozen news organizations. Somebody allegedly has a copy of the book which they PHOTOGRAPHED and then posted to a bunch of different sites. It was not at all difficult to find a copy of these supposed photos of every single page of the book. It was even disappointingly easy.

Is it the genuine article? Looks real enough:

But looks can be deceiving. And even if it IS the real deal, the pages are EXTREMELY hard to read. I looked at the first few pages and the table of contents to check (curiosity killed the cat), but I have no desire to read the whole book in this format (satisfaction brought it back). Hubby-Eric has a copy on order, and I have a copy on hold at the library.

If you do seek out this copy, what you'll see is a lot of pictures of the pirate's hands and carpet, along with blurry and barely readable images of the book itself. Take my advice: wait for the real thing. It isn't going to take long.

Wednesday Lunkdimp-Thing

Bully visits Seattle and now has me craving Top Pot Doughnuts. Mmmmm Bavarian Cream...

Lots and lots of cool Owly sketches. I want an AquaOwly one of these days.

The Bad Astronomer links to a sky map. Cool.

Speaking of space, Airliner narrowly misses being hit by falling space junk. This is going to become more and more of a problem in the future. Should we start worrying now?

Colleen Doran on the search for Homer’s Ithaca.

Seattle Times on Song of the South.

I like tattoos, but I'm nart inclined to get one, 'cuz I'm a coward who changes her mind too much for a permanent change. But I'd be tempted by this tattoo.

How To Get Rid of Stuff.

Spinning shapes. Is it related to the hexagon on Saturn?

A call for Blogging Code of Conduct. Um, how about basic common courtesy and respect? And immediate criminal prosecution of people who make "anonymous" death threats?

Is the blog boom over? I'd say, just from the killing of dead blogs I've done on Blogshares over the last few months, that there was a boom in the summer of 2004 that resulted in a lot of dead blogs.

The face of the RIAA: Sony Music drops suit after sternly worded lawyer-letter. And Boing Boing wants you to remember that it's the LABELS that are suing their customers, and hiding behind the name of the RIAA to protect their reputations.

Hotlinking is BAD. It's theft. Nobody told John McCain apparently, as his campaign stole bandwidth from a webpage designer, who pranked McCain in response. In future, all politicians should hire an internet consultant who actually knows the internet.

I'd wondered why there wasn't a lawsuit... but I guess I didn't look far enough. Snohomish County and voting machine maker Sequoia are being sued for the inability to recount votes in a transparent way (as is required by state law), therefore effectively outsourcing elections to a private company. Among the data presented was the very close election between Rossi and Gregoire for Governor, which included a "statistical impossibility" that gave Rossi considerably more votes in Snohomish County.

You'd better hope you don't end up on the list.

Afraid of subpoenas, White House staff avoids using secure White House e-mail. Instead, they use non secured e-mail that puts sensitive data at risk. Yeah, really intelligent. They might as well just hand over all our state secrets to terrorists.

And to leave you with amusement... CLUNK!

Sunday Lunkdimp

I'm doing a little guest-blogging at Elayne Riggs' Blog, while she's dealing with grief and being with friends. Do check out my pathetic efforts to live up to her Estrogen Month posts.

Comics Fairplay will be at Emerald City Comicon. So will I, but I won't have a booth. However, if you want to find me, you'll probably have the best luck by checking in with the great folks at Illusive Arts (BUY TONY LOCO!).

TangognaT has the Manga Giveaway Results.

Augie directs us to an article about a car powered by compressed air. I want.

DMCA is a failure! says the guy who created the thing. Along the same lines: "RIAA Updates Mission Statement".

Running out of combinations, Washington State license plates to get longer by a character.

Random Thoughts Continued

In memory of Leah Adezio, who baked a birthday cake for Aqualad every March 6th, I've continued the tradition. I think Leah would have enjoyed being remembered with a birthday cake devoted to Aqualad.

Galaxion updated, and there's a little extra something on the forum that Tara doesn't want you to go see.

New Supergirl Costume Design.

Mike Sterling has described the evil comic shop, which all comic book fans have been in at least once. And usually only once.

Unfortunate match up of Shazam! Monster Society of Evil and 52.

Artist Ryan Kelly is cleaning out his old artwork, and offering it to fans if they make a donation to his site.

Movies based on comic books are based on comic books, not graphic novels, and we should be proud to be fans of the form instead of embarrassed by it, so says Mike Gold.

A set-back for creator's rights?

Oh... Osvaldo Cavandoli, 1920-2007. I certainly recognize La Linea.

The strangest level of Counter-Strike ever made. I mean, really, Hotel Fawlty Towers?

We have started in on this year's set of Girl Scout Cookies. While my favorite type is the Tagalongs, hubby-Eric loves Thin Mints. We got a box of each type this year, most of which went into the freezer. I was asked to try the "Little Brownies" by some friends, as they are sugar-free. My initial reaction? Ok, but too dry.

On the topic of food, here's a way to communicate menus in condiments, used by the Waffle House.

Charles Bonnet Syndrome. It's D*mn Interesting.

Mel Gibson made a one-frame appearance in this Apocalypto trailer. I would make you watch it to find it, but instead, here's the screen grab:

I still don't have any need to see the movie, though I think I'd sit through it before I'd sit through some of his other movies.

Snow from Boiling Water.

A very strange comparison of private versus socialized health care. I've always been pro-universal health care, but right now, as I go day to day without any insurance, I'm even more for universal health care than I used to be.

Speaking of health, there's a way to find out if medicine will work for you, but most doctors don't use it, and insurance won't cover it. The technology has "the potential to significantly reduce the 2 million hospitalizations and 1 million deaths caused by adverse drug reactions every year". Isn't that a good enough reason to give it a shot?

Slate argues for the release of Holocaust Archives that have been closed since the War.

Boing Boing shows an anti-anti-piracy ad. As long as the companies that distribute movies and music treat their customers as de facto criminals, piracy will grow.

Oh No! There's a pug in Get Fuzzy!