Tag Archives: Friday Links

In case you somehow missed the news, there’s going to be a Star Wars VII, VIII, and IX.

OPPA GOTHAM STYLE

A gorgeous, six-minute video tour of the known universe.

PvP shows how couples can work through the difficult issues.

Ladies and gentlemen, the world has a new fastest supercomputer. Meet the Titan.

A wooden ball rolls down an unfathomably long wooden staircase, playing a musical note with each step. The result? Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Must be seen to be believed.

New trailer for Iron Man 3 if you haven’t seen it yet.

Questionable Content produces the funniest comic I’ve seen in a while.

Meanwhile, this SMBC represents the first time I’ve ever read the phrase “big gay zeppelin.” So, you know, good work there.

Hope your weekend is fantastic. See you next week!

SMBC finally did it: the Trifecta. Three kickass comics in one short week. Enjoy.

See you Monday!

This was big news, but in case you missed it: Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from 24 miles above Earth and broke the sound barrier on his way down. He also broke all sorts of records in the process. To reiterate: he went higher than four Everests stacked on top of each other, then moved faster than the noise from his own fall on the way down. Dayum.

How does Google index every website in the world and still give you 10 gigabytes of e-mail storage – for free? Magic, right? Well, magic, and over a million servers. Recently Google released some rare photos of their sprawling data centers – check out the voodoo.

The Onion live-blogged the second debate, and it’s just as good as you’d imagine. “Seems neither candidate is tall enough to have his feet hit the ground when sitting on those stools. Pathetic. America deserves better.”

What would happen if you set off history’s biggest nuclear bomb at the deepest point in the ocean? xkcd’s Randall Munroe has the answer. I’m liking these weekly “What if?” segments more and more.

And finally: this guy saved the world in 1983, and you’ve probably never heard of him. Why not make his acquaintance?

That’s all she wrote. See you next week, and have a great weekend!

In the 2000 summer Olympics, NBA player Vince Carter dunked over another player. The French dubbed it le dunk de la mort, the Dunk of Death. Watch the video.

This Onion article is called “Lot Of Bold Talk About Making Broth Going Around Apartment.” That is all.

So it turns out Penny Arcade did an official five-page comic for Zelda: Skyward Sword. I’m about a year late to this party, but that doesn’t make it any less epic.

The Ohio State marching band does Pac-Man…and Halo, and Tetris, and Mario, and the running horse from Zelda. Ten minutes of jaw-dropping nerdistry.

Can a creature without a brain have memories? Ars Technica says yes.

An Imgurian tests the theory that combining any two kickass items produces something more than twice as kickass. The grid is so big, you’ll have to open it in a new tab to read it.

That’s all (s)he wrote. See you next week!

Sometimes you got a lotta links, and sometimes you don’t. Short roundup this week.

The tiny island country of Niue has made Star Wars coins part of their legal tender. Admittedly, these are limited-edition collector’s items, and not likely to be spent as coins. Still, having Yoda on government-recognized currency? Nothin’ wrong with that, amirite?

SMBC offers possibly the best threat of all time.

Over and out, blog buddies. See you Monday, same time, same channel.

A new study suggests that psychopaths are not as good at smelling as the rest of us. Apparently the same region of the brain that handles empathy also does a pretty sweet job of sniffing things? The article declined to comment on why the photo of little Jimmy, shown above, was chosen to represent the psychopathic community; I’ll let you connect the dots.

This editor’s note from a recent issue of Vogue is one of the best corrections I’ve ever seen. I love the casual tone, like it was just some slight mistake that anyone could have made. “Oh, that’s your job? I get those two confused all the time.”

So how about Kate Mulgrew’s husband ran for Governor of Ohio in 2002? Big galaxy, small world. (Non-Trekkies: nothing to see here, move along.)

A video of a bulldog doing somersaults on a trampoline. That is all.

A randomly-generated tree fractal, different every time you refresh the page. More HTML 5 voodoo.

The Oatmeal has an unusually heartwarming comic about owning a dog, called The Dog Paradox. (Language NSFW, heartwarming or not.)

I check the webcomic “A Softer World” every day, but I don’t often (ever?) link to it. This comic, however, is too perfect to pass up.

Meanwhile, xkcd has a unique perspective on Hollywood.

Finally, Buttersafe offers up the most poignant comic about giant flying snake monsters you will ever see.

Have a stellar weekend. See you Monday!

Ever wondered how much foreign aid the U.S. gives to other countries? The Foreign Assistance Dashboard has the answer. Simply hover over a country to see how much they received in any given year. $330 million to Mexico in 2012, $625 million to Nigeria, $180 million to Indonesia. It’s no exaggeration to say that most of the world gets U.S. money in one form or another.

One of my readers was kind enough to e-mail me a link to this short, graphical story. Titled “A Day at the Park,” it’s a surreal, philosophical conversation about questions and answers and what good they are in the end. I love the art style on this.

Ars Technica has an interesting piece on what it’s like to be a computer scientist dealing with politicians in Washington, D.C. “The idea that something is impossible or that it’s practically impossible due to issues of compatibility and so on tends not to sink in,” says comp sci professor Ed Felten. Politicians tend to think that “any system can be broken, any system can be made secure, and it’s just a matter of throwing resources at problems.”

So apparently this exists: maple bacon donut.

The Onion reports: Newborn Loses Faith In Humanity After Record 6 Days. Gaze into the abyss, little guy, and it shall gaze back into you. Now let’s put on your jammies!

This week: an SMBC double feature! Experience the Lovecraftian horror of Pac-Man, or see what happens when a lawyer gets a genie.

And finally: I can’t imagine the demographic for spelling bee humor is very large, but Penny Arcade has found their target audience in me.

That’s all for this week. Have a superlative weekend. See you on Monday!

Mucho linkage this week!

A video of the best team jugglers in the world. I love how the commentator, himself a professional juggler, gets increasingly bitter at how much better they are than him.

The Onion reports on a promising new service offering short-term carp rental.

Want to learn about electrical circuits, but don’t want to actually build one? Why not try the Virtual Circuits Lab?

How about this: a 19-year-old kid from England strapped a £30 camera to a balloon, released it into space, and put the photos online. There’s hope for our world yet.

Norwegian researchers have patented, and are selling, semiconducting graphene nanowire. Transistors built out of this stuff would be orders of magnitude faster than what we have today. Moore’s Law FTW.

Two Guys and Guy has another great comic this week. I admit it: I am this man.

SMBC has an excellent comic too, neatly summarizing my thoughts on gay marriage.

Louis C. K. is brilliant as always. In this clip, titled “Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy,” he goes off on people who complain about technology. Smart phone loading a web page too slow? “Give it a minute! It’s going to space! Can you give it a minute, to get back from space?”

And finally: this.

Have a great weekend!

I’ve been messing with HTML 5 lately, and it seems pretty powerful. Here’s a slick little program that renders 3D functions using the HTML 5 canvas tag.

CARPE DIEM, says SMBC. I couldn’t agree more. A beautiful little comic about living your dream(s) – because who says you only get one?

Meanwhile, Penny Arcade reminds us this week that the world is pretty flippin’ sweet already.

See you Monday!

Just a couple quick ones this week.

I don’t often link to the webcomic Sinfest, but this one could have been custom-written for me. I bet a lot of you introverts out there can relate.

On the other hand, I link to SMBC all the friggin’ time, and comics like this one are why.

Monday is Labor Day in the States, so the blog will return Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend, whether it’s three days or two!