A Bunch of Videos

After the fold, of course, to keep the main page a little tidy...

Linkages for Tuesday

No, a kid did NOT find an ancient Mayan city by comparing ruin locations to the stars.

Weapons of Math Instruction?

Ursula K. Le Guin writes about her cat.

Huh. Wizards of the Coast has some tournament judges suing them, claiming they were effectively employees and should have been compensated as such.

The Chronicles of Cisco continues for fans of The Flash tv show: Part One (in which Cisco tries to improve the Flash suit and falls asleep), Part Two (in which Cisco tries to find an intruder at 3:45 a.m.), Part Three (in which Cisco makes a mistake), and Part Four (in which we learn... well, watch and see).

Boing Boing has a list of disappearances that still make people scratch their heads. Some fascinating stories there.

More fascinating stories came out of Remote Year, a social experiment that didn't turn out perfect, but certainly makes for good reading.

Here's a brutal Fortean topic: The terror of albinism in parts of Africa. In short, if you are albino, you do not exist and are constantly at risk of death.

This piece from Popehat has to be read to be believed. This guy seriously wanted an amendment declaring only people descended from white Europeans to be allowed to be citizens? Now the guy is a Trump delegate... what a surprise.

Hugo Corner:

• Boing Boing on Chuck Tingle's epic troll of the rabid puppies.
• GRRM on other awards.
• Bujold on her Locus nomination.
• A review of one of the works I don't plan to bother reading, because it's from the rabid puppies' master's publishing house (It sounds about as worthless as I suspected it would, building strawmen based on scant facts). The reviewer then responds to the morons who support the original piece.
• And lastly, a painful piece on the current status of the comic book industry, which also mentions the Hugo mess.

And now, a four-minute video that will make you cry. Maybe.

The Present from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.

I'm still trying to remember where I put all my links...

So this isn't going to be much of a linkdump. I'll remember how to do it eventually, I'm sure!

First, today was the first day I left the house since Monday. Eric took me out to lunch and then we hit the local Bi-Mart to check some prices. Yeah, not a huge trip, but enough to get me out and about. I thought Inkwell was relieved to see me finally go, but when we got back he was sleeping under my chair. Hrm.

I also chatted with my sister a bit. Since I am no longer constrained by my job, it might be possible for me to go see my family this week. That would be nice.

I got a strange call this morning from a number I didn't recognize, and it turns out there's a recall on some veggies we purchased at Costco. I checked the batches and figured out which ones are affected. We have two large bags of peas that are in the recall. I'll be taking them back to Costco some time this week, probably.

I was impressed by this story of how someone cannot visualize and wonder how many other people perceive the world differently than I do. I mean, does my orange actually correspond to what someone else is seeing as orange? But this is even deeper. This is a completely different way of thinking. How can a person not picture things in their mind?

Speaking of picturing things, I want to see this guy's version of Aquaman.

How about a little bit of Judi Dench and Benedict Cumberbatch? I love how, once Benedict gets up on stage, everyone in the audience seems to be recording it with their tablets and phones. Lovely. I also love how he's not really sure what he's supposed to be doing... he just goes with the flow and jumps off the stage at the end.

Judi Dench and Benedict Cumberbatch from Hay Festival on Vimeo.

Note: Yes, I know a new Doctor Who companion has been announced. I don't intend to talk about it much, since until I see the character in action (in more than just a teaser) I won't really know what to think. If I could have avoided the news, I would have. But those kind of spoilers are often impossible to get away from, sadly.

In more grim news, the story behind a well-known photograph, which might change your perception of the photo. Or it might not, hard to say.

Happy Fourth!

Laura just posted her Fourth of July video, so now I will do the same with this Schoolhouse Rock classic:

A little pick-me-up...

Links!

Ah, Reddit! Here's a beautiful description of what a techie feels like when a non-techie is using a computer.

New clips from How to Train Your Dragon 2, if they didn't get zapped...

Two-Stroke Toilets: The trouble with Time Travel. Presented without comment.

Here's a political link... warning, naughty language ahead: John Oliver explains the problem with the climate debate.

And another political link. Robert Reich has 10 things to do to fix the inequity problem.

Hallowe'en Crowds

Ok, because of loading problems, I've put the video behind a cut. But you can download it if you prefer (and have the software to run it).

Another Linkdump

I'm rooting for the Girl Genius Kickstarter to hit at least $220,000 so I'll get all the wallpapers (and see a video of Phil and Kaja fainting).

This is a great 3-minute video from space, and the Canadian Space Agency has other neat videos with Chris Hadfield as well. If you've only seen his music video, you haven't seen anything.

Boing Boing has a great video from when the New Zealand parliament voted for marriage equality.

We've all gone a bit far with our fear of terrorism. Check out Act of Terror, a seven-minute documentary about videotaping police and getting in trouble for it.

I'm not sure I'm willing to try any of these 9 exercises you can do with your cats. Inkwell might shred me.

A software company had an awesome idea of how to handle piracy.

I Got Yer Gatsby Right Here!

Hi, everybody. Eric here, with a rare post. Laura and I frequently laugh at The Colbert Report. But we laughed a whole lot at this. It has some of our favorite things in it, like people being silly and Carey Mulligan and...a special secret guest star. Please, enjoy!

Video

So I've figured out how to watch videos on my smartphone. Sure, it's small, but not so small that I can't put it close to my face and watch comfortably. I've put a handful of shows on it and I'm watching them when I get a break... like when I come home to feed the cat and eat lunch.

Last night I was watching Young Justice in bed before going to sleep. The hubby and the cat sneaked into the bed and Eric watched while Inkwell tried to nuzzle the phone out of my hand. So there are some drawbacks.

Hey, it's almost bed time. I think I'll go watch another episode...

Oooooooooooo PUPPIES!

PUPPIES! (link to live streaming video).

Disney Animator Makes Animated Storyboards for Wicked

So, hubby-Eric was squeelighted to see this awesome sequence of storyboards for the "Defying Gravity" song in Wicked. I certainly can see why. Sadly, the video is not embeddable, because it was removed from YouTube due to copyright claims by NBC Universal... but you can see the video at the website of the Disney animator, Heidi Jo. Go check it out.

Linkdump

I'm very very happy that the next Miles Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold has a few chapters up for reading. One of my favorite series, and one of the few that seems to get better as it goes along. Three books in this series make up a trilogy that I reread when the depression gets too much to handle: Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign.

Superman saves family from foreclosure. Of course, then there is the guy who found Ansel Adams negatives at a garage sale.

Comic Con 2010 Interview with Andrea Romano. Well worth watching if only for the bombshell she drops at almost 4 minutes in, and the fact that she loves Aquaman (5 minutes in).

I hate this math trick. It always manages to screw up my brain, no matter how hard I try to wrap my mind around it.

Bookplates!

Why do vampires sparkle? Eeeeuuuuuwwwwwwwwww.

Sergey Larenkov takes old photos from WWII and puts them together with pictures taken in the same place in modern day. The results are... ghostly.

This video has been making the rounds as an anti-prohibition vid. I like that they included a person who didn't "sniff the flower" as being part of the group.

Russia is on fire.

Davy Jones' Gym Membership.

LOLCat Theology has Preachers.

Pug for the in-laws, or what pugs really think about.

A Video Everyone Should Watch

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Make it Rain - Bank of America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Jon Stewart explains credit cards so even an idiot can understand why they are bad, and then goes into the predatory practices of the current banking industry.

Linkdump

Flu Diagnosis Chart.

If you don't want to recycle those plastic bottles down at the transfer station, try turning them into a chandelier.

Gonzo as Davros.... it actually works... Now, I can't help but start casting my own Muppet Doctor Who. Let your imaginations loose on that one!

Better artificial bones: Made of Wood.

Here's yet another example of why I don't like flying, you can be held prisoner by the airlines.

This is old, but check out this intense video of citizens saving children from a burning car.

Another hard look at health care in "How American Health Care Killed My Father".

Pug (puppy) for the in-laws.

Saturday Night Linkver

Comic Book Legends Revealed #212: Mike Grell, Batman Beyond, and Wild Dog.

If you want to know why DC Comics is so messed up: THIS! Crossovers suck the life out of a universe unless all creators are on board from the conception of the idea and have enough time to fit it into their own books.

PC Design Mistakes, 15 classic errors in the designs of personal computers.

Speaking of design errors: More Kindle DRM nonsense. Read the original article and the follow-up before getting angry. Still, Amazon has GOT to start explaining what they are selling better. And I refuse to purchase any books with DRM. I'd rather you embedded my name in the code for every page of the book than put restrictions on how I can read it.

Stolen iPhone recovered by three nerds and a laptop.

Three colors, not Four.

Haunt: an experiment to see if the feelings of a haunting can be recreated by controlling humidity, temperature, air movement, electromagnetic frequencies, and sonic frequencies to the norms that ghost hunters find on their investigations. Yes, science! Note: I lean toward a hypothesis that electromagnetic fields playing on human perceptions in ways we don't entirely understand account for a huge number of ghost sightings. I would love to be proven wrong or right with real science. This study won't do it, but it's a step in the right direction.

Pixar grants the last wish of a dying child.

Slashdot on Lockhardt's rant about Math education in the United States. In the comments there are links to HTMLizes versions of the essay.

Hey, the sunspots are finally returning, and scientist may even know why!

Zoo spends half a million dollars on escape-proof Prarie Dog enclosure, prarie dogs escape within 10 minutes of being introduced to it.

And lastly, a video for hubby-Eric to watch:

Links Links Links!

I was ready to lose weight, but Mark Evanier's story was the trigger that gave me the strength to actually do it. In a couple of weeks it will be my 3rd weight loss anniversary.

Absolutely stunning video of the night sky over at Bad Astronomy. Wow. Cool stuff. I hope Eric and I get a chance to spend a night out in the desert over here sometime to watch the Milky Way.

A very strange story from Japan, where Google maps ran into an unexpected problem with a historical map overlay. Apparently class distinctions are alive and well.

I love this story of a baseball player whose host family is an assisted living facility.

Switched at birth.

As if being a cab driver weren't hard enough, false accusations of assault by preppy drunk idiot girls can only make life worse. I hope the driver wins the case. Thank goodness he had a camera in his cab, or he would've had his life completely ruined.

Mystery of the clock... how did this timepiece survive an ill-fated Arctic expedition?

Wow, the first draft of Star Wars was really really bad. Almost worse than bad. Wow.

More creative ads in Unusual places.

Source code for breathalyzer is crap. Great, now we can't trust breathalyzer tests, either.

LOLCat Theology.

Pugs for the in-laws. I saw a pug in the neighborhood today when I walked to the library. It was sharing a yard with three dachshunds, and looked positively giant next to them.

My favorite April Fool's joke

It appears that the Swiss tourist board website put this up yesterday to celebrate April Fool's Day. I loved the idea when I heard about it, and I loved it even more when I saw how they did it. So watch and enjoy!

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.

Linkdump

Now it can be revealed! Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed is going to Book Form!. I've been saying the articles should be collected into a book for some time, great to hear it's happening.

Oh, yeah here's Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #196: Punisher, Vince Colletta, and Jack Kirby.

I wonder if this treatment could be used to reduce the triggers for depression?

Speaking of Depression, here's Great Depression Cooking with Clara. As of this writing, there are seven YouTube videos featuring Clara, a great grandmother who tells stories of life during the Depression while she cooks a dish.

And, speaking of dishes, I almost wish I had a grade-school child so I could make cool Bento boxes.

And speaking of Japanese food (boy, I'm stretching this), here's yet another sushi belt video. I like what happens when the camera gets to the kitchen, very near the end of the video. I just really like this cinema veritas type of film, and the sushi belt seems to be a lovely manifestation of it.

Something I forgot to mention to Jack Pendarvis when he got my oatmeal tips from Facebook is that I used to take mine with honey, but honey has become so expensive lately that I've had to give it up. Especially since I have this "thing" about pure honey. I miss my honey.

Quick, call Aquaman!