Some Links

I hope Carrie Fisher fully recovers. She has no idea how many fans echoed her heart attack when they heard about it.

The thing about this story that makes me very curious is why the letters are sent to that particular address in the first place.

Yes Virginia, there is a Spider-Man.

Here's a gingerbread creation I can get behind. I want a C64!

I was delighted to hear a great story about my hometown police department:

"Adrian and I were driving on Lincoln Ave. Towards Wal-Mart when I saw a police car with 2 officers and they were talking to a lady and her little (maybe 3 year old) daughter I thought something must have happened...Well it did in front of my eyes I witnessed these 2 policemen handing the little girl a wrapped present from the trunk of the car...I was almost in tears and I gave the officer a thumbs UP and a Honk of approval and he waved back . It made my Christmas seeing this Act of Kindness in my Town !" -Betty Lynn Garza on Facebook

I love this video that sets two pug puppies against a mostly indifferent kitten. The fact that the puppies aren't sure whether they should be playing with each other or trying to get out amuses me.


I still haven't been able to wrest control of my Twitter account from Inkwell. At least he is still allowing the blog posts to go through.

A new vaccine developed to protect against ebola was apparently 100% effective in a trial during a live outbreak. If that's really the case, it would be an amazing success. A total of 5,837 people were given the vaccine. Two people had serious side effects (including an allergic reaction) while many others had general soreness. The World Health Organization has a good summary of the results. While the vaccine only protects against one strain of ebola, it's a good start and the trial is definitely promising.

Author David Brin answers the question "Is Government Useless".

Question: If you are pro-life, are you for preventing unwanted pregnancies, or are you for punishing people who have unwanted pregnancies? Because there are many ways to reduce abortion that don't involve making it illegal and punishing people who are in desperate situations - but the pro-life movement rejects them all. Which suggests to me that the movement isn't about preventing abortion as much as it is about punishing people who have sex.

Some Links

What teachers really want to tell parents.

Why Walmart produce is horrible. Yet another reason to completely avoid Walmart, along with how they ruined Vlasic and Rubbermaid (YouTube link).

A "cure" for shingles?

A pug in memory of Buddy.

Links!

The Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy Books according to voters on NPR.

A nationwide class-action lawsuit has been filed that claims Apple Inc. and five of the nation's top publishers illegally fix prices of e-books.

Super Mice

The Problems with Tidal Power. Be sure to read the last line of the article (it made me giggle).

I want these signs on freeways.

Pug for the linkdump.

Tuesday Linkage

There will be no more Amy Unbounded. That's the bad news. The good news is that Rachel will tie up the cliffhanger best she can, and that she has other stories set in Goredd for us to enjoy.

Rioters damage comic shop. Forbidden Planet looted. The news from London is terrifying.

"Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching." (via)

Now this is a crappy landlord situation. Wow.

Most awesome Preschool Teacher ever.

I've been using Swagbucks to earn some Amazon.com gift cards. As of today, I've gotten $190 in gift cards without spending a cent (though my spam e-mail is getting hammered), and have enough for another $15. I've pretty much got my new Kindle when it comes time to buy it!

Safety Man! (he will haunt your dreams)

Play with cats online.

Pug for the Linkdump

Oh, what the heck... Another Linkdump

Get a Trim!

Cthulhu Ski Mask.

A moment of silence for William Sleator, one of the first authors I ever met. He was gracious and explained himself to eager students, and made his visit to my school one of the few highlights of middle school.

If you really like your Bujold, there's now a fan-compiled Reader's Companion to A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Experimenting with Linux.

How about 15 Wonderful Words with No English Equivalent.

What I want from a restaurant website vs what most restaurant websites give.

Even when I'm annoyed at them, I tend to respect truckers. That truck driver you flipped off? Let me tell you his story.

Wow. Just Wow.

Spider-Moose.

And the ever-present pug picture: Pug Life, or When Pugs Go Bad.

Linkdump

Ten Things You Should Know Before Moving to Seattle.

Have you seen The McBain Movie?

A typeface designed to help dyslexics read.

The Renton Police bring down the Streisand Effect upon themselves. I grew up in Renton. I wouldn't have known a thing about this... except the police decided to bring attention to it.

Ten Things Not to Say to a Depressed Person. And since that's a downer, read this next: Ten Supportive Things I'm Glad Somebody Said to Me, from the same author. Via.

The Oldest Unsolved Seattle Police Homicide.

I'm sure you can spot a Monty Python reference from a mile away.

Aim for the Stars.

It's not a Bloggity linkdump without a pug.

Yet Another Linkdump

Very well done Comic-Con Bingo board, and as a counter, a disturbingly honest Comic Con Bingo board. Note: I've seen the Comedy Central version, and it's lame compared to these.

The Case for Comic Books.

Keep Right Except To Pass.

A League of Their Own.

The biggest problem with electric cars is that the infrastructure to charge them while you are out and about doesn't yet exist. Walgreens wants to change that.

Fascinating article on what gender means, and how marriage laws may have unintended consequences.

I'm seriously having trouble believing that people are really stupid enough to believe The Onion. It "literally" blows my mind!

Pug Puppy animated GIF for the in-laws.

Small Linkdump

Bad news if you believe in facts. People tend to continue to believe lies even after they've been disproven and those people accepted they were lies.

Muppet Thor.

Why Pursuing Cheaters Doesn't Pay. One teacher's view on his attempts to stop cheating in his class. (Update: link fixed)
Update to the Update: The original post was removed due to legal issues. Here's the gist: a professor actively pursued cheaters, only to be damaged financially by it when students turned in negative performance evaluations for him because he put so much effort into catching cheaters instead of making class a learning environment. He decided instead to create tests and assignments that students couldn't cheat on, as they involved current events and active in-class participation. He explained it in a comment on an article about his post.

Wanna read a creepy good short story? Try The Powerful Bad Luck of DD Dupree by Frank Tuttle.

I wonder if the in-laws are into Steampug? Thanks to David Oakes.

Linkdump

I guess I'll post about the plants tomorrow...

Nominate your favorite fantasy world at If You Lived Here.

Speaking of fantasy worlds, on his Wonderful Blog of Oz, my husband is remembering past Winkie Conventions. Today he's forcing me to guest post.

Kindles are Awesome.

I liked this Flat Earth Map. Goofy, but cool.

Extreme low-calorie diet might cure type 2 diabetes. It sounds incredibly difficult (only 600 calories a day for two months?), but the possibility of being free of diabetes might make it worth it for some people. I think the follow-up diet would be almost as crucial as the initial two months.

This one requires a little explanation. A woman was arrested for standing on her own front lawn recording a police stop. At a meeting to support the woman, police used the law to harass her supporters. The first incident might have been a mistake, heat of the moment, or even forgivable stress. The second incident makes the police look really bad.

Tiny Pug for the in-laws.

Time for a Start of Summer Linkdump!

The kids are alright. It's the adults who need some work.

A tornado path can be clearly seen on this satellite image of Massachusetts.

Lifeboat at World's End.

You think your parents are embarrassing? How about dad waving at the bus each morning in a different costume? First Day. Last Day.

WANT.

Want.

WANT. Seriously. These would be really useful around here.

A DC Cyclist has a run-in with an idiot and lives to write about the whole thing in detail.

The Springfield Shopper (click the top link to go to the image, then check out the comments).

PugsM&M's for the in-laws.

Linkdump

It's Towel Day.

Yeah, I'm here, too.

Superman crossover.

The problem with Seattle for cartoonish super-villains.

I have trouble believing this is a photo. Very cool.

Kevin and Kell talk about teachers: school board meeting and easy targets.

The real problem with the metric system.

As a person very interested in archeology, all I can say is AWESOME!

Joplin Tornado Booklet from 1971.

This is what happens when we don't vaccinate.

I don't think I'd better comment on this, but I want to link to it: Abortion Saved my Life.

Pugs for the in-laws.

Linkdump Time Again...

First up, May the Fourth be with you. Got that out of the way...

News about Sarah Jane Adventures.

What's with the strange pair of background characters appearing in various comic books?

Follow-up on Gaby's fake pregnancy and the unexpected international reaction to the story.

Page Not Found.

Politician attacks Neil Gaiman. *sigh*

Great, now every Girl Scout is going to want to be paid in monkeys.

In praise of the Public Library.

Oz and Sunday's big news.

I had a bad cold over Easter, so Eric and I decided to delay our usual Easter traditions a week. Last weekend, we had candy and my traditional Easter breakfast on Sunday. Yesterday I overdosed on half-off chocolate that we got entirely too much of. Today I'm drinking water and trying not to think about yummy delicious chocolate.

Pug for the in-laws.

Linkdump

Doctor Who: Space and Time

Am I doing it wrong?

Torvald assisted Greg again. Also see the first part of the story and feel sorry for the crap teachers must go through to get things happening.

New Wonder Woman costume fixed to look good.

This is for my sister: Oboe Wan Kenobi.

Copyright trumps Trademark?

Since even the experts are linking to it, here's the Handy XKCD Radiation Chart, which will give you a good idea what levels are safe. Be sure to read the stuff at the top about the length of exposure.

Easter is coming?

Lost Civilizations.

Pugs for the In-Laws.

Another Linkdump

Old Sith Nick.

Five Awesome Not Real Children's Books.

Darryl Cunningham Investigates Climate Change.

Comic Book Legends Revealed #290: Devo Lyrics, Blok's Death, and Frank Frazetta.

How Wikileaks Stole Christmas.

OOOoooo, Want.

Why Pyrex isn't actually pyrex anymore.

How to make bacon in the oven.

Festivus gets inmate a change of diet.

Dear Abby's advice on homemade cards. Personally, I'd prefer a homemade card, and so far I've enjoyed the custom cards we've gotten. Some year I really ought to send out Christmas cards.

This is my motivational poster, now.

Spy Pug for the in-laws.

Linkdump Long Overdue

It's Star Wars Day for Katie.

How to Open a New Book.

Paging The Physician...

Neil Armstrong on the first moon walk, and why it covered such a small area.

Ancient Giant Penguin. Cool. Of course, little penguins can be daring, too.

Some of the most memorable Google Doodles.

Organ Donation.

2,000 Ping Pong Balls and 30 Middle-School Teachers in Zero G.

Evolution.

Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving. I Made Food! I'm Magical!

The Real Rules of the Blue Moon.

A victim of the overblown hype about Wikileaks posts to reddit.

Creepy Photos at the Tower of London.

If you plan on buying the Girl Genius Novel from Amazon, consider buying it on January 12th, Kaja Foglio's birthday. I would, but I haven't got any money for it.

Another, better, use for tobacco?

I am so far behind on these...

• Comic Book Legends Revealed #276: Thimble Theater, Shadow Lass, and Superman.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #277: Hobgoblin, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Censored Get Fuzzy.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #278: Daily Planet Building, Carl Barks' First Duck Tale, and DC's first Graphic Novel.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #279: The Batcave, Wally Lombego, and Xanshi's destruction.
• The Dreams of Wally Lombego, a supplement from J.M. DeMatteis.
• Star Wars Again, the final page unaltered.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #280: Crossover in Rutland, Gyro Gearloose, and The Squadron Sinister.
• Comic Book Legends Addendum: Leagion and Star Wars stuff.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #281: Marvel G.I. Joe comic book, The Archies, and Mister Nobody.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #282: Fallen Angels, Translated Dan Dare, and Re-Drawn Superman.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #283: Chuck Dixon's Plans, Squirrel Girl, and Woodcut Etrigan.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #284: New Mutants Profanity, Flex Mentallo, and Dick Sprang.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #285: Nudity in the Daily Mirror, Steve Englehart's Farewell to Marvel, and Harlan Ellison badmouthing Michael Fleisher about Spectre.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #286: Captain Marvel Trademark, Censored Carl Barks, and Robin's Creation.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #287: The Marvel Ethnic Slur, Captain Shazam, and Atlas/Marvel Comics problems.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #288: Neil Gaiman Superman/Green Lantern Project, Frank Frazetta's Career, and Wonder Woman's Twirling Lasso.
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #288: Felix the Cat, Wonder Woman TV Series, and The Marvelous Wizard of Oz (with a surprise shout out to my husband's Wizard of Oz site).

I think I'm caught up. Whew. How long has it been since I've done a proper linkdump?

Pug puppy for the in-laws

Linkdump

Super Hero Fight in Seattle.

A voice teacher judges heavy metal singers without knowing who they are.

What Disney Cartoons tell kids.

"Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 322, Oakview, CA 93022. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before."

This XKCD makes me really really happy (be sure to check the mouseover text!).

Business Cards for Fictional Companies.

The Bad Astronomer gives us Penn and Teller on vaccines.

I'm just glad the actions in this memo were never used.

TSA Porn Scanners deliver "20 times the average dose that is typically quoted by TSA". In addition, that dosage is concentrated on a smaller area of your body than the radiation they keep comparing it to. Do your body a favor, don't go through the TSA's scanners.

I support this bill.

I like James Hance's work, particularly the Doctor Who stuff. But there's plenty there for anyone who likes mash-ups. Be sure to check out the cartoons.

Pug for the in-laws.

MemeCat Attack.

Some Links for Thursday Night

Ten impressive Optical Illusions, a sampler from a larger article. Via Elayne.

Where does the Alphabet Come From?

How to remember people's names. I really really need to work on this.

The top 50 Music Videos of the 1990s. Sadly, I don't recognize a lot of these. Does that make me old?

If you don't vaccinate your kids, you may be liable if they make someone else sick.

Bad Panda Joke.

LOLDog Theology is simpler than LOLCat Theology.

Pug for the in-laws.

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

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.

Linkage

Deep Thought: I've been having so much fun with my Batman: Brave and the Bold Wall Stickers that I wish somebody would make a set of Wizard of Oz wall stickers based on Denslow's artwork so hubby-Eric could join in the fun.

Hrm, this comic art exhibit is in my neck of the woods. Maybe I ought to go check it out when it starts? The exhibit is September 18 through November 15 at The Maryhill Museum of Art, which I've been meaning to visit anyway.

Politics on the Bendis Boards as the opponent of the "kids reading comics, *gasp*" ad speaks out.

Todd Klein reviews Age of Bronze #30.

Phil tells us the moon is shrinking.

Wait, these idiots were ghosthunting on a train bridge still in use?!?? Hello, people! Where's the common sense? Look, I have no problem with ghosthunting, but permission, common sense, and safety should be top priority, not simply seeing the ghost. Sheesh.

Want.

Fast Food Ads vs Reality.

LOLCat Theology continues to grow.

Pug for the in-laws.

More Links!

Just want to mention this again: Archive Binge helps you catch up with webcomics that have huge archives. I'm currently reading a few of the comics on the list. If you have a webcomic, I really suggest you get your strip on this site.

Speaking of webcomics, have you met Gronk yet? Not a huge archive on this one, just start here.

The comic book blogosphere is up in arms about a stupid ad by a Maryland candidate for State Senator. To me, the picture gives the opposite impression of what she's trying to convey. Kids that young advanced enough in reading to understand Superman, X-Men, and Marvel Previews (?!) are probably very well educated.

OH MAN! Rich Johnston reports on legal trouble that SLG is having over their horror comic Winchester, which I enjoyed as noted here. I'm not sure what the problem is, except that it apparently involves trademarks. It's a pity, because I wanted to see more of that book, and this fight not only makes that unlikely, it might take down SLG entirely as a publisher.

For some reason, DeviantArt doesn't think inkers are actual artists. Their terms of service have declared that any artist must have created the work entirely by his or herself. No collaborative projects allowed. So inkers who have been putting up examples of their work are being shut down by the service. Anyone got the full scoop on this? The second link there indicates that they are only opposed to inking without permission, so is it a copyright issue solely?

You may have heard about Google allowing you to make free voice calls to any phone in the US or Canada? Well, I made two yesterday. The first went through fine, the second didn't.

Want to see Hamlet starring David Tennant as Hamlet, Sir Patrick Stewart as Claudius and the Ghost, Oliver Ford Davies as Polonius, Mariah Gale as Ophelia, and Edward Bennet as Laertes? Well, now you can watch it online at PBS.

The magic diet elixir is... water. For some strange reason, if you drink a full glass of water BEFORE a meal, you are likely to eat less. Who would've thought?

Oooh, Metafilter collects some learning resources links in a post with a great first line.

I adore this post by Ursula Vernon. She's saying, HEY, BUILD IT HERE! to the mosque, and for selfish reasons, too!

WOW, that's a deal! Getting frozen yogurt for 38/100ths of a cent per ounce! *sigh* Want to read something scarier? Some of the people in the comments don't understand why the math is wrong. Hint: the unit specifies cents, not dollars.

A comparison: Kindle, iPad, print magnified at 26x and 400x. I put the latest generation Kindle on my wishlist because it looks pretty good despite the flaws.

A new stove to make all other stoves cry, but will it catch on?

Here's a Doctor Who teaser trailer, but after you watch it, be sure to go to this link. If you don't, you will feel like a fool.

Pretty good for a fan effort, yes?

A respected teen author is dis-invited to a teen literary festival. As a result, other authors withdraw from the event. More here, including links to other authors talking about the situation. I originally heard the news from Sherwood Smith.

Basement Cat is heartless.

An extra pug for the in-laws.

And lastly, if you have any handy prayer weasels, please get them ready to spin. Eric and I are going to need all the help we can get in the next few weeks.