What We Cannot Speak About We Must Link To In Silence

Lotsa links, some old but all still fresh.  Mostly humorous or diverting.  A few otherwise. Random order.

• Teju Cole, "Seven Short Stories About Drones" (via)  More here.

• 100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About

• Philip Roth v. Wikipedia

• Flowchart: Are You Good at Following Flowcharts?

• The Spider-man frog.

• The greatest 404 page ever. (Warning: music starts on opening.)  Another good one.

• Possibly the greatest Venn diagram ever (via):

• If you read the Narnia books as a kid, you might remember the problem of Susan.  I'd always thought that Neil Gaiman had the last word on that.  But it turns out there were other brilliant things to say too.

• I’ve done my work for the day,
I’ve twittered random shit.
I’ve whined about immigration;
And I’m sure I displayed my wit.
I’ve drunk my supper, watched some porn,
And even fed the dog.
Now it’s time to be an idiot on John Scalzi’s blog.

(continues at the link)

•  Plot holes (and similar flaws) in World War Two.  Sample:

Apparently we're supposed to believe that in the middle of the war the Germans attacked their allies the Russians, starting an unwinnable conflict on two fronts, just to show how sneaky and untrustworthy they could be? And that they diverted all their resources to use in making ever bigger and scarier death camps, even in the middle of a huge war? Real people just aren't that evil. And that's not even counting the part where as soon as the plot requires it, they instantly forget about all the racism nonsense and become best buddies with the definitely non-Aryan Japanese.

Similarly (or is it 'conversely?), If Series Set In the Modern Day Were Written Like Sci-Fi Series.

• Rest easy: University of Chicago's Indiana Jones mystery solved.  Also here.

• The Avengers vs. God. 'nuff said.

• God's blog: the comments.  Sample:

Going carbon-based for the life-forms seems a tad obvious, no?

The creeping things that creepeth over the earth are gross.

The dodo should just have a sign on him that says, “Please kill me.” Ridiculous.

Amoebas are too small to see. They should be at least the size of a plum.

• The inspiring and uplifting -- at least in personal terms; it's a bit depressing & infuriating considered politically -- story of Richard the piano tuner:

Here's his web site, for more on his lifestyle -- or to hire him to tune his pianos. if you live in the London area.

•  11 More Weird & Wonderful Wikipedia Lists. The problem with pages like this is that highlighting good stuff on Wikipedia always sets it up for deletion.  But it's fun.

• Brief but fascinating (and quite persuasive) speculation about how fictional characters work from Cory Doctorow.

• Old news, but I missed it before: Neil Gaiman's writing a new Sandman series!  Huzzah!  And with the person who is probably the best artist working in mainstream comics today, too.  (JHW3's books are pretty much the only ones I'll buy just for the art, even with little interest in the story.)  So double huzzah!!

• The Battle of Hoth (from The Empire Strikes Back) in military terms.  Includes links to rebuttals, further discussion, etc.

• Zombies as an image of survivalism.

• A defense of academic hesitations and verbiage.  Preach it!

• Compilation of Calvin & Hobbes snowmen cartoons.

• And speaking of which, “Hobbes and Bacon” is a “Calvin and Hobbes” tribute that takes place 26 years later

• I don't know how to describe this incredible, amazing series of photographs called simply "The Basement".  It's brilliant.  Go see.

• The Saga of the Hat:



• An extraordinary blog post about addiction, from the fabulous Natalie Reed who, sadly, recently stopped blogging.

• Sayings of the Jewish Buddha.

• 27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012

• Truth hurts:  Novelists strike fails to affect nation whatsoever.  Dying Lion Sure Doesn't Feel As Though He's Completing Some Great Cosmic Circle.  New Cheney Memoir Reveals He's Going To Live Full, Satisfied Life Without Ever Feeling Remorse And There's Nothing We Can Do About It.

• Ever since Ambrose Bierce's classic Devil's Dictionary (1881 - 1906), there have been a lot of sequels, updates, etc.  Most aren't nearly in its class.  But this one comes pretty close.

• Henri Matisse’s Rare 1935 Etchings for James Joyce’s Ulysses

• Texts from Superheroes (via).

 Link to tumblr; link to best-of-2012.

• How many people are in space right now?

• "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious": not invented in Mary Poppins. In fact, it predates it by decades.

• Quiz: 18th-Century Connecticutian or Muppet?  Don't miss the answers (especially the final answer).

• Wild dolphins will greet one another by exchanging names.

• Six things rich people need to stop saying.

• Two on (SF writer) Robert A. Heinlein: Friday as a trans novel, and Robert Heinlein: One Sane Man?  By John Kessel.

• The unabomber's entry for his Harvard alumni reunion book.  And the unabomber's pen pal.

• Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.