Link roundup

1. Michael Lewis's latest, outstanding article on the financial apocalypse focuses on Germany. It's 17 pages but well worth your time. Here's a sample paragraph:

This preternatural love of rules, almost for their own sake, punctuates German finance as it does German life. As it happens, a story had just broken that a division of a German insurance company called Munich Re, back in June 2007, or just before the crash, had sponsored a party for its best producers that offered not just chicken dinners and nearest-to-the-pin golf competitions but a blowout with prostitutes in a public bath. In finance, high or low, this sort of thing is of course not unusual. What was striking was how organized the German event was. The company tied white and yellow and red armbands to the prostitutes to indicate which ones were available to which men. After each sexual encounter the prostitute received a stamp on her arm, to indicate how often she had been used. The Germans didn’t want just hookers: they wanted hookers with rules.

OK, here's one more:

This is what makes the German case so peculiar. If they had been merely the only big, developed nation with decent financial morals, they would present one sort of picture, of simple rectitude. But they had done something far more peculiar: during the boom German bankers had gone out of their way to get dirty. They lent money to American subprime borrowers, to Irish real-estate barons, to Icelandic banking tycoons to do things that no German would ever do. The German losses are still being toted up, but at last count they stand at $21 billion in the Icelandic banks, $100 billion in Irish banks, $60 billion in various U.S. subprime-backed bonds, and some yet-to-be-determined amount in Greek bonds. The only financial disaster in the last decade German bankers appear to have missed was investing with Bernie Madoff. (Perhaps the only advantage to the German financial system of having no Jews.) In their own country, however, these seemingly crazed bankers behaved with restraint. The German people did not allow them to behave otherwise. It was another case of clean on the outside, dirty on the inside. The German banks that wanted to get a little dirty needed to go abroad to do it.

2. Kristin Tercek's having an art sale.



3. NPR's top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels.



4. Grantland continues to better than I had hoped. Two great articles today: Whether the Blue Jays are cheating; Whether John Cena has it within him to become a WWE villain, and how that change would impact WWE's earnings. (I'd love to see a chart showing how much traffic ESPN has lost to Grantland. I never even visit ESPN.com anymore.)

Link roundup

1. A video game review with a clever twist. Read the review and then click on the button just below.

2. Batman comic by Chip Kidd and Tony Millionaire.

3. 2011 Nebula Award winners announced.

Link roundup

1. Cory Doctorow has a great short story here about the challenges of building an internet connection between the mundane world and the world of fairy. (Just skip over the technical details if they're as foreign to you as they are to me.)

2. io9 is giving away a tauntaun sleeping bag.

3. No, special forces dogs don't get their teeth replaced with titanium fangs.

Link roundup

1. Jim Shooter explains what makes Rocky such a good movie.

2. The NY Observer:

On March 6, dozens of zebra finches were found dead outside the National Arts Club, at 15 Gramercy Park South. They belonged to the club president, O. Aldon James. The ASPCA is investigating the situation, though it's been suggested that Mr. James was likely responsible for their demise.

...

Bizarre stories about the club seem lately to emerge on a monthly basis.

3. Nicki Minaj invited Stave Nash on stage at her concert and gave him a lap dance.

The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders

This month's Rolling Stone includes an absolutely unbelievable story by Guy Lawson about two arms dealers in their 20's who won the contract to supply hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Afghanistan army. Or as the headline reads: The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders And how the Pentagon later turned on them.

Link roundup

1. "No, Nicaragua Did Not Invade Costa Rica Because of Google Maps."

2. A glowing review for Lego Harry Potter for the iPhone and iPad.

3. Really great article by Mark Bowden about a private detective hired to figure out how a woman was seemingly magically removed from a hotel, severely beaten, and raped. (And remember this story the next time someone tells you that security cameras don't help solve crimes.)

*Buy iPads at eBay.

Link roundup

1. McDonald's has Megamind Happy Meal toys.

2. This guy seems pretty embarrassed about his career reselling used books, but he's a heck of a writer. Here's a good paragraph:

The old-fashionedness of my PDA echoes the marginality of the work I do. I rely on a technological castoff to search through other people's castoff merchandise. Thrift stores and even library book sales often present books jumbled in boxes on the floor. I root through these. If there's another guy scanning near me—a competitor—I go faster. (And it's almost always a guy, notwithstanding the pair of redheaded, cheerleader-type twins I see at book sales around Chicago.)

Can't you picture it?

3. Annie Leibovitz is still having money trouble:

It's not entirely that collectors find Leibovitz's portfolio too commercial or focused on shallow celebrity, Gapper writes. It's also that Leibovitz has consistently failed, throughout her career, to sufficiently kiss the asses of the sort of people who would spend $3.5 million on a bunch of photographic prints. "She had very little interest in the art world for most of her career," a gallery owner who used to rep Leibovitz told Gapper. "She suffered from not caring about it, not paying enough attention."

4. Monstrous house.

*Buy Happy Meal toys at eBay.

Captain America and Bucky vs the Nazis (link roundup)

Captain America and Bucky by Paolo Rivera - - if you buy one his black and white illustrations at Splash Page, he'll also send you a color version.

And a few more links:

1. Vivid description of working on a magazine in the 80's.

2. Want to reduce your appetite for awhile? Look at this photo of the world's biggest English breakfast. Via.

3. Tenacious Toys has the ThreeA Bramble robots available for preorder.

*Previously: Kinda stylish Captain America outfit for a girl.

*Buy ThreeA toys at eBay.

Captain America and Bucky vs the Nazis (link roundup)

Captain America and Bucky by Paolo Rivera - - if you buy one his black and white illustrations at Splash Page, he'll also send you a color version.

And a few more links:

1. Vivid description of working on a magazine in the 80's.

2. Want to reduce your appetite for awhile? Look at this photo of the world's biggest English breakfast. Via.

3. Tenacious Toys has the ThreeA Bramble robots available for preorder.

*Previously: Kinda stylish Captain America outfit for a girl.

*Buy ThreeA toys at eBay.

Twitter fail caterpillar? (link roundup)

The image greeting visitors to Twitter, which was down for maintenance, on Friday night.

And a few more links:

1. "By tickling young gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, researchers say they learned that all great apes laugh." Video proof. Via.

2. You know, James Frey is a really good writer.

3. Better than any episode of Law and Order/CSI, read this true life story of the arrest of LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus for a murder she allegedly committed in 1986.

4. Old Predator.

*Previously: Hillary Clinton Laughing Pen.

*Buy robot gorilla toys at eBay.

Twitter fail caterpillar? (link roundup)

The image greeting visitors to Twitter, which was down for maintenance, on Friday night.

And a few more links:

1. "By tickling young gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, researchers say they learned that all great apes laugh." Video proof. Via.

2. You know, James Frey is a really good writer.

3. Better than any episode of Law and Order/CSI, read this true life story of the arrest of LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus for a murder she allegedly committed in 1986.

4. Old Predator.

*Previously: Hillary Clinton Laughing Pen.

*Buy robot gorilla toys at eBay.

A young Vladimir Putin pretends to be a tourist (link roundup)

File this under too good to verify (or maybe, "fake but accurate"), but does this photograph show KGB agent Vladimir Putin posing as a tourist during one of Reagan's visits to Moscow? Apparently a common Soviet technique was to plant KGB agents as tourists and then have the tourists ask Western leaders provocative/obnoxious questions. More here and here.

And a few more links:

1. Illustrator David Cousens is currently accepting commissions. You can see some of his recent artwork here.

2. Now this is how you start an article:

The corner of Hollywood and Western is the epicenter of an underground world: a community outside the collective vision of club-hoppers and restaurant-goers rushing by, and one forgotten by public policy. Homeless youth, many cast off at 18 by the foster-care system, root out lives in a dim, moldy labyrinth of “abandos” — abandoned buildings hidden behind storefronts and the busy boulevard.

You can continue reading Daniel Heimpel's article for the LA Weekly here.

3. Obese police officer wins lawsuit requiring that he be reinstated to the police force.

4. At least one of the dvds Obama gave to the British prime minister can't be viewed in England due to DRM. Via.

*Previously: Russia's patent agency just awarded some guy the patent on the ;-) emoticon.

*Buy KGB collectibles at eBay.

A young Vladimir Putin pretends to be a tourist (link roundup)

File this under too good to verify (or maybe, "fake but accurate"), but does this photograph show KGB agent Vladimir Putin posing as a tourist during one of Reagan's visits to Moscow? Apparently a common Soviet technique was to plant KGB agents as tourists and then have the tourists ask Western leaders provocative/obnoxious questions. More here and here.

And a few more links:

1. Illustrator David Cousens is currently accepting commissions. You can see some of his recent artwork here.

2. Now this is how you start an article:

The corner of Hollywood and Western is the epicenter of an underground world: a community outside the collective vision of club-hoppers and restaurant-goers rushing by, and one forgotten by public policy. Homeless youth, many cast off at 18 by the foster-care system, root out lives in a dim, moldy labyrinth of “abandos” — abandoned buildings hidden behind storefronts and the busy boulevard.

You can continue reading Daniel Heimpel's article for the LA Weekly here.

3. Obese police officer wins lawsuit requiring that he be reinstated to the police force.

4. At least one of the dvds Obama gave to the British prime minister can't be viewed in England due to DRM. Via.

*Previously: Russia's patent agency just awarded some guy the patent on the ;-) emoticon.

*Buy KGB collectibles at eBay.

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.

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.

Barbarian wearing a teddy bear pelt (link roundup)

Teddy Bear Slayer t-shirt by Marcelo Braga on sale here.

And a few more links:

1. Best school essay ever, about Walt Whitman, no less. It starts, "Walt Whitman was an awful child molester who was born in ancient Hong Kong. He is over 3,000 years old and remembers the names of all of the forgotten Gods." You must read the whole thing. Via.

2. Christopher Hitchens decided to deface a sign bearing a swastika in Beirut. He and his companions were lucky to escape with their lives. Read this, it's more exciting than any action movie I've seen in ages.

3. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hopes to be governor some day. His new wife has a movie coming out this week. In it, she participates in a threesome.

4. Tenacious Toys has the new vinyl UglyDolls figures available for preorder (by the set).

*Previously: Female barbarian wearing a Cookie Monster Pelt.

*Buy Conan toys at eBay.

Fascinating article about Teller (of Penn and Teller) and his red ball trick

In 2007 Teller, of Penn and Teller wrote an essay about "a hundred-year-old trick called the David P. Abbott ball" that he was working on. The essay was included in the program for the Penn and Teller Vegas show:

When the theater is empty I like to go out on stage. It’s lonely and beautiful. I look at your empty seat and think about you being in it. … Then I practice. I often practice stuff you’ll never see. For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a hundred-year-old trick called the David P. Abbott Ball. It is a very, very hard trick, almost like juggling. I put in an hour almost every day. I try to get the tricky moves so deeply into my muscles and brain that I can forget I’m doing a trick. Soon I’ll know whether the ideas I have for this trick are possible. But I won’t know that till I learn all the moves and invent my own. If the trick doesn’t work out, you’ll never see it, and I won’t be sad. I had fun every second I was working. I love the stuff you never see.

This is the story of that red ball trick. Yes, it's now part of the show.

I couldn't find the red ball trick, but I did find this video of Teller showing off his sleight of hand:



*Previously: NY principal hires black mage to cleanse school.

*Buy Penn and Teller dvds at Amazon.

Now that's how you review a coffee mug

Augie De Blieck Jr uses 983 words and five photos to review the Umbrella Academy coffee mug.

Here's a few more links

1. More than half the grades given to Brown students last year were A's. Link.


2. Two University of Iowa professors have killed themselves after being accused of (unrelated) sex scandals involving students. Link.


3. Absolutely hilarious animated gif featuring the worst rug burn (mat burn?) of all time. Link.


4. Buy a pack of baseball cards and you too might win a strand of Abraham Lincoln's hair. Link.


5. Over the last 30 years, GM and Ford have wasted enough money that they could have closed their own facilities and simply bought Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen. Link. Via.

*Previously: Umbrella Academy pvc set.

*Invest your money with the very valuable baseball cards on sale at eBay.

Best two sentences I read today

Paul Boutin for Valleywag:

If you're not familiar, Adbusters is a fun, angry, Starbucks-hating publication whose credo states that we've all been brainwashed by advertising and mass media into an orgy of overconsumption that lets the American Empire destroy the rest of the world to feed our fat faces. I buy it at Whole Foods.

Well-written review of Stratford Shakespeare Festival's production of "The Trojan Women"

I'm not a big fan of live stage productions, but Noah Millman has written an excellent review of Stratford Shakespeare Festival's production of "The Trojan Women." Here's a taste:

The play is set after the fall of Troy. Hector is dead. Priam is dead. Paris is dead. The city is sacked and the women wait in tents outside the walls for their new masters to parcel them out amongst themselves as slaves. Before meeting the women, we open with Poseidon’s impotent fury at the loss of his city, and his surprise at Athena’s sudden reversal of sympathy and determination to visit revenge upon the Greeks whom she had only just led to triumph. These gods depart, and we are left with the women. Hecuba, Queen of Troy, stirs to bemoan her fate – no sons, no husband, no city – and learns soon enough that so long as she can say “this is the worst” the worst is yet to come.

It’s not the way one normally chooses to spend an evening, listening to the lamentation of women. Conan accounted it the greatest delight, but he spoke specifically of the lamentation of women whose husbands he had slain, and anyhow he was a barbarian.

Read the whole thing. Via.