Puny Miscellaneous Links for Mortals: 2010

[DjinnAndTonic]

I am... skeptical... about your third response there.

[Cotigo]

Gee I wonder why.

[Dhyerwolf]

On the other hand, if there was actually someone named that, my desire to watch WWE would increase dramatically.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

What does WWE even stand for? How long ago did it change? Who is the big popular wrestler these days so I can name-drop to a Japanese kid and seem like an awesome teacher who cares?

I'm pretty sure Chris Jericho is still around, and he's big on Japan.

[Grefter]

If a wrestler called The Blind Mandingo interests you Dhyer you may want to check out Inter Species Wrestling which features greats like Giant Tiger, Moostafa the Misunderstood Cow, El Generico and of course Player Uno who has a profile well worth checking out.


Height
    5'11
Weight
    215 Lbs
Hometown
    Mushroom Kingdom
Signature move(s)
    Bubble Bobble Buster, Game Genie, Goomba Stomp, Ribcage City Ransom
Finisher
    Dig Dug Driver
Fun fact
    Before settling on wrestling - Player Uno's previous career ambitions were to be a tapdancer, or a professional bowler. Leading us all to believe he is actually a giant butch lesbian in a mask

Disclaimer:  This is low budget Canadian Wrestling that I have never watched and will not divulge how I have knowledge of it.

Edit - And this is actually a thing, not a joke site.

[metroid composite]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103313-Microsoft-Apologizes-to-Fort-Gay-for-Xbox-Live-Ban
Stay classy, Microsoft.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-world-verse
World vs grandmaster chess match.  Kinda neat.

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100907/narcissists-love-facebook-100907/20100907/?hub=EdmontonHome
See URL.

http://www.twitvid.com/Q41DB
(video) hit in the face with a watermelon.

http://goperiscope.bandcamp.com/
(music) Go Periscope puts out a free mixtape download; good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JIz7I5yzwQ
(WTF) (Video) "Rare Exports"

[Yoshiken]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKxPeod8pvY&feature=player_embedded

King of Fighters - the movie.  Are you ok?

Actually, I watched this at a friend's last weekend. It wasn't as bad as it seems, outside of Rugal and Terry being NOTHING like Rugal and Terry. It's pretty good if you just pretend it's not actually KoF and just a film that references it.

[DjinnAndTonic]

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-world-verse
World vs grandmaster chess match.  Kinda neat.

Personally amused that the event is called "Magnus vs. The World".

Also, it seems cool. Fast-paced chess-by-vote sounds like it'll be an interesting look at how the internet works as a group in a setting like this. I kinda wanna try it.

[Ranmilia]

The real reason for the fast timing probably has to do with Rybka, an increasingly popular chess engine that is now advanced enough to demolish most/all human players given a few minutes to calculate moves.  The online chess community has been dying off quickly since it came out, loads of people will just "play" by inputting whatever it says to try and get their ratings up, and it would surely dominate this event if it weren't for the time controls.

[metroid composite]

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/
Comics that have lapsed into public domain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ryQ8N_Lv0&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L70I0vTwYxg
(ad, video) "Dolph Lundgren wants to take your unicorn and do bad things to it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmmYMwFj1I
(music video) "Being a Dickhead's Cool"

http://videosift.com/video/Cartoon-Bears-are-Still-Bears
(video) Cartoon bears...are still bears.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/sep/10/takashi-murakami-palace-versailles
(images) Modern japanese art, displayed in the ancient French palace of Versailles.

http://videosift.com/video/The-Most-Terrifying-Video-Game-Ever
(video, review) interesting sounding survival horror game "Amnesia" developed by Penumbra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgwF8mdQwlw
(video) disassemble and reassemble a Jeep in less than 4 minutes.

[Lady Door]

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/09/12/postmodernism-in-fantasy-an-essay-by-brandon-sanderson/ - The link kind of says it all, but: if you like fantasy, if you like Brandon Sanderson (even if you don't), if you like reading about writing, definitely check out this essay.

[Cotigo]

An excellent read.  I think he's managed to articulate why I'm no longer all that interested with most Sci Fi/Fantasy/other genre lit.

In fact, it’s probably impossible not to reflect archetypes in storytelling. I’m sure they’re there in The Way of Kings. But I found in working on it that I didn’t want to intentionally build a story where I relied upon reader expectations. Instead, I wanted to look for themes and character concepts that I haven’t approached before, and that I haven’t seen approached as often in the genre.

There’s a distinction to be found. It’s much like the difference in humor between parody and satire. (As I define them.) In the first, you are funny only if your audience understands what you are parodying. In the second, you are funny because you are innately funny. Early Pratchett is parody. Mid and late Pratchett is satire. (Not to mention brilliant.)

Incidentally, he may have just sold me on giving The Way of Kings a shot.  Well, if I didn't have so many other books I should be reading already.

[metroid composite]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ihatedinosaurs/hipster-dinosaurs-ppz?s=mobile
Hipster Dinosaurs

http://www.insidescience.org/research/tractor_beams_get_real
Tractor Beam technology

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=54028
For anyone who's dealt with bug reports in software development: read the comments, they're great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u24NkJsqdE
(video) amusing.

http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?autoplay=true&vid=1118917&filter=game-of-thrones&view=null
(video) Game of Thrones teaser.

http://madshobbithole.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/my-hand-made-hobbit-hole-bag-end-from-lord-of-the-rings/
Someone makes a model hobbit hole.  Adorable.

[Grefter]

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=54028
For anyone who's dealt with bug reports in software development: read the comments, they're great.

Funny until I realised I will be doing the exact same thing in an hour when I get to work.  Then my soul died a little.

Tractor beams are awesome though.

[NotMiki]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/12/quran-burning-fail-skateboarder_n_714072.html

how awesomely '90s. 70s.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/09/fake-press-release-ripping-hendry-issued-in-miller-park-press-box.html

also awesome

EDIT: Koran story updated to reflect appearance of skateboarder.

[Luther Lansfeld]

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/09/fast-growing-boys-have-more-sex-.html

Couldn't decide if this belonged in IotD or not.

[Captain K.]

What's IotD about it?  Thought it was pretty interesting.  Also explains my lack of sex  <- bottle fed.

Excuse me, I have to go kill my mother now.

[Shale]

I'm betting the idiocy comes from touting the correlation as rapid growth -> more sex instead of rapid growth -> better physical health, higher strength and more height/muscle mass -> more sex.

[AAA]

Hey L4D fans, the first part of the promised graphic novel on L4D1 is up:
http://www.l4d.com/comic/comic.php?page=0

[metroid composite]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
(video) Message from the Queen about using English....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWa1eiHPhKw
(video) Inceptionauts

http://douglastrumbull.com/
(video) Interesting history of special effects done by Douglass Trumbull--includes Blade Runner and Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind.

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-most-religious-states-fare.html
Silly little statistics--how much is believing in god helping the most faithful states in America?  Apparently not much.

[Shale]

http://kotaku.com/5638588/new-devil-may-crys-debut-trailer

Devil May Cry: Emo Hipster Edition.

No, I'm not fucking kidding.

[Shale]

OMG TEH DOUBLEPOST:

http://laughingsquid.com/echo-park-time-travel-mart/

This is the best store ever.

[hinode]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30305/Kotick_Hints_At_DirectToConsumer_Video_Game_Movies.php

He theorized, "If we were to take that hour, or hour and a half, take it out of the game, and we were to go to our audiences for whom we have their credit card information as well as a direct relationship and ask, 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?', my guess is that ... you'd have the biggest opening weekend of any film ever."

Kotick noted that unlike film studios that are stuck with a model that requires costly theatrical distribution that cuts in on margins, Activision Blizzard could go directly to its consumers via online. The CEO mentioned a possible $20 or $30 price tag for such a film, but at this early stage, it's all speculative.

Deep down, I'm not really sure whether this is a good or bad idea, but when Kotick says this in his standard smarmy greedy-businessman-trying-to-ripoff-his-customers-as-much-as-possible tone of voice it just sounds ominous.

[Shale]

Probably because it's a short step from that to selling gameplay and cutscenes separately for $40 each.

[Hunter Sopko]

He theorized, "If we were to take that hour, or hour and a half, take it out of the game, and we were to go to our audiences for whom we have their credit card information as well as a direct relationship and ask, 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?', my guess is that ... you'd have the biggest opening weekend of any film ever."

Is it just me or does this come off as a thinly veiled threat?