The Missing Links is just what it sounds like – a collection of links to interesting things I found on the interwebs this week. I hope you enjoy them. This is the fourth in a never-ending series.
Winner! Strange Maps is a blog from Big Think and it’s really cool. The most recent post is a London Underground themed map of the Mississippi river and its tributaries. The other posts have historical maps, linguistic maps, and other great stuff in map form. Look for other blogs from Big Think appearing in Missing Links, as soon as I get around to checking them out.
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A Close Second: The Salty Droid has launched an SEO campaign against boiler room buddy Mark Shurtleff because Mark Shurtleff is a scumbag (and also the Attorney General of Utah). The best part is that everybody can play along! The worst part is that Mark Shurtleff isn’t the only scumbag involved and that children were abused. Bleep bloop indeed, my salty friend.
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Best in Show: The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator is spot on and hilarious. Read my scathing review of Galdwell’s idiocy here.
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And this week’s Crazypants Award goes to… Carole Lieberman, the self-described “media psychiatrist” who believes that video games have led to an increase in rapes. But guess what? She’s full of shit.
Arts and Entertainment:
Gabrielle Diani and Etta Devine are planning to replace every n-word in The Adventures of Huck Finn with “robot” to point out how stupid it is to go changing classics. Don’t worry, it’s not going to be one of those Jane Austen Vampire things. Just Huck and Robot Jim.
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Slinkachu is a London-based street artist who has been “abandoning little people on the street since 2006.” Don’t worry, it’s not what you think. The “little people” are tiny model train set characters and they are set up performing everyday tasks. It’s really interesting. (first link is to his blog, second to the official Slinkachu site.)
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Muppet correspondence! Here’s a few letters to and from the people behind the scenes (and one letter written by the Swedish Chef himself).
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Jonathan Koshi has designed Calaveras, also called sugar skulls and made popular by Dia de los Muertos. He based the designs on Alien, Kermit the Frog, a Lego man, and others. They are really cool and available for purchase.
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Who said geniuses aren’t fashionable? Check out Einstein in some tres chic sandals.
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Lois Lane has died. The story of the creation of Superman – from the first ideas to the sale of the rights to Joe Shuster’s S&M artwork to the court battles – is fascinating.
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Famous tombstone typos or 10 reasons you should go have your tombstone made right now. Unless you’re thinking of living forever, but do you really want to live forever? Forever ever?
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Chris Piascik made a picture of the over 300 companies that refuse to advertise on Glenn Beck’s show.
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mental_floss’s Miss Cellania’s File has an awesome collection of plush toys. I want to get these for my kids – their future sanity be damned!
Robbin’ and Stealin’ (and cryin’ and killin’):
Wired article about someone who found a way to game the lottery. Why the lottery doesn’t care is anyone’s guess. There’s also an accompanying podcast which delves into the psychology behind code cracking and the disturbing possibilities of this discovery. (Both links from Wired)
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Borders has filed for bankruptcy. Here’s a sortable list of store closings. I love bookstores, but I refuse to pay more than $7 for a book, which is why I’ll be circling my local Borders with a tear in my eye.
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15,000 years ago, Britons ate and drank out of human skulls. How fuckedupbuttotallynails is that?
Language:
Hockey and linguistics! These are a few of my favorite things.
Introducing the father of our future Computer Overlords, Watson!
Here’s an article from mental_floss about Watson, that Jeopardy-playing, human destroying computer. Even though Watson won, humans made him, so don’t we still win? And for those of you worried about the coming of the T-1000, never fear, all the computers in the world = only one human brain.
