Brutal Legend desktop wallpaper (link roundup)

Go here to download a new Brutal Legend desktop wallpaper.

And a few more links:

1. Excellent (and long) article by William Langewiesche about Somali pirates seizing a French ship crewed by men and women. Here's a taste of his writing, as he describes the ship's captain's earlier brush with the Asian tsunami:

Soon afterward, on December 26, 2004, the ship was anchored in deep water off an island called Curieuse, tending to a group of French passengers, most of whom had gone ashore to loll on a beach. Around noon a sailor radioed from the island reporting in confusion that the ocean had suddenly somehow withdrawn. It was the ebb before the surge of the murderous Asian tsunami that was reaching across the Indian Ocean and slamming into its shores. Marchesseau had received no warning of the event, and he had no time to make sense of the sailor’s call. The tsunami swept smoothly under the Ponant’s keel, in the form of a current, pivoting the ship 90 degrees around its anchor, and then rearing up into a steep wave which obliterated the beach from right to left before Marchesseau’s eyes.

Start here. And here's his books available at Amazon.

2. Speaking of lovers held as hostages, I highly recommend Ann Patchett's Bel Canto.

3. Chinese students sure have a lot of books on their desks. Via. By comparison, here's what schools look like in Detroit. This recession/depression has been well-earned. Via.

4. How to make animated gifs.

*Previously: Chinese elementary school in a cave.

*Buy pirate toys at eBay.