Link roundup

1. Like the Prisoner, but with good intentions:

Its detractors may end up dubbing it "Dementiaville", but Switzerland is brushing aside a debate raging among geriatric-care experts with plans to build a mock-1950s village catering exclusively for elderly sufferers of Alzheimer's and other debilitating mental illnesses.

Via.

2. "What do Army junior officers actually recommend reading?: Their own top 10."

3. A hobbyist piloting a drone spotted a river of blood - - a meatpacking plant in Dallas was simply ejecting blood into the river. Via.

4. Sam Wolfe Connelly has a new shop featuring some illustrations I've featured.

5. Paul Pape's having a sale on his custom made stuck in carbonite sculptures.

Link roundup

1. New holiday-themed Sword and Sworcery desktop wallpaper. (I don't think I ever reviewed this game. I love the art and music, but the gameplay gets very tedious after the first delightful 30 minutes or so).

2. Can you guess why death rates rise in good economic times?

3. A look at how an acrylic storefront sign is made. Via.

4. Penelope Trunk's advice on achieving New Year's resolutions.

5. Nightmare fuel - - the wolf spider and its babies.

6. Madeline Flores remembers cassette tapes.

7. Koren Shadmi on the prices freelance illustrators should expect for their work.

Medicine lollipop

When your child won't take his medicine, make a medicine lollipop. You can buy lollipop molds at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Nintendo better get it in gear, GTA III and Superman for iOS both sound great.

2. Famous movie producer/spy.

3. Maybe there will be a cure for peanut allergies.

4. Gawker tries to explain Herman Cain's surge:

There's a specter of Tea Party, anti-establishment, and now, more specifically, panicky anti-Romney feeling out there that's migrated from Trump to Bachmann to Perry and now to Cain. It is an energy that takes over these bodies, one after the other, kind of like Voldemort's soul or one of the X-Men or whichever character it is from the pictures, we forget.

5. Tron-inspired wallpaper. Via.

*Buy Tron posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. I mentioned the other day that Neal Stephenson had written an article lamenting what he saw as stagnation in scientific development. I don't believe that he mentions in the article his own association with Intellectual Ventures (which is now suing Motorola).

2. Corruption and death at a Vatican-connected hospital.

3. Video of Tom Cruise in a dance battle. It's like Zoolander in real life.

Link roundup

1. Prescription drug vending machine in Los Angeles (Pasadena).

2. "Did Zombies Roam Medieval Ireland? Two 8th-century skeletons with stones shoved in their mouths suggest that the people of the time thought so."

3. (Male) Commander Shepard from Mass Effect paper toys.

4. Last Exit to Nowhere's Groundhog Day shirt is now on sale.

Nintendo reveals its plans for the vitality sensor

Emergency defibrillator via.

Animation explains how a virus invades your body

NPR:

When you get the flu, viruses turn your cells into tiny factories that help spread the disease. In this animation, NPR's Robert Krulwich and medical animator David Bolinsky explain how a flu virus can trick a single cell into making a million more viruses.

Video of a white blood cell chasing bacteria

"It is a neutrophil chasing Staphylococcus aureus." Via.

Link roundup

1. Looks like /Film movie reviews have to be taken with a big grain of salt.

2. Plan B Locates Your Lost or Stolen Android Phone, Even If You Didn't Install It Beforehand.

3. XKCD on cancer.

Epilepsy by Chris Buzelli

Epilepsy by Chris Buzelli for the cover of The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association:

The word epilepsy originates from the Greek word epilambanein, meaning someting that jumps upon you from the outside or a sudden attack. The sudden violent siezures historically has led to explanations of magic or religion. Some cultures saw epilepsy as a sacred illness (a gift or a punishment from the gods). Only 2,000 years after Aritotle understood that epilepsy was a brain disease, it is no longer surrounded by superstition. People living with epilepsy are still living with the unpredictable.

Chris has various prints and originals on sale here.

*Previously: Headache by Byron Eggenschwiler.

Keep me in your mind's eye

Druggist's logo.

Link roundup

1. Devastating review of Puzzle Agent 2:

But sadly there’s not a glimmer of interest or wit in the telling, so you’re in fact drumming your fingers as people slowly jabber about nothing, waiting until it ends. I chose to play good puzzle games on my iPhone during these times.

2. Grotesque corruption in medicine.

3. The sale items for July at Things from Another World have been posted.

Headache

Byron Eggenschwiler posted a few new illustrations including this one for an article by Carl Zimmer for Discover Magazine about chronic pain and the pain networks of the brain.

Link roundup

1. 7 Tools to Help You Conquer Your Allergies, including a recommendation of the SinuSense Water Pulsator Sinus Rinse, available at Amazon.

2. And speaking of Amazon, Richard Dawkins's science book for kids, illustrated by Dave McKean, is available for preorder (34% off). Via.

3. And speaking of gadget lists, "This Super Sherpa Climbed Everest 21 Times. Here's His Eco Gadget Bag."

Link roundup

1. From Drew Magary's latest NSFW and funny, but probably offensive column:

I gotta go to church more often then. I think churches operate as the epicenter of most American daydreams. I can't sit in a church for more than five minutes without imagining a flock of vampires crashing through the stained glass window, and I have to stab them all in the heart with a steel crucifix. I'm pretty sure my visions are exactly like that new Paul Bettany movie.

I've been at ceremonies where they do the whole "Do you reject Satan?" thing, and it's impossible to not think of The Godfather at that moment. I also wish they had an effigy of Satan right at the altar that you could stab or shoot with a crossbow. Why not add a bit flourish to the ceremony?

2. Robin Hanson:

What if the airline industry lobbied to end the practice of routinely investigating the cause of each airline crash? After all, if there is no investigation, it will be hard to show an airline was at fault. You might imagine there’d be a public outcry. But in 1970 the US medical profession did essentially the same thing, and few complained:

Today, hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s. … Autopsies play a critical role in helping to advance understanding of the progress of a disease and the effectiveness of various treatments. At the same time, they may identify medical conditions that clinicians and high-tech imaging miss or misdiagnose. …

In 1998 the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that autopsy results showed that clinicians misdiagnosed the cause of death up to 40 percent of the time.

3. The Batman by Aragones statue I posted yesterday is available for preorder at the BBTS for $80.

Link roundup

1. Jason Chalker's looking for commissions, starting at $30.

2. Supposedly John C. Reilly is the front runner for to play Haymitch in The Hunger Games. Too bad, I thought Russel Crowe would have been perfect. (Like an informal sequel to Gladiator.)

3. The University of Maryland's medical school is teaching homeopathy?

Link roundup

1. How to make a battery out of pennies. Via.

2. MSNBC:

The Los Angeles City Attorney's office is trying a new legal maneuver to try to stamp out graffiti — it's charging 10 graffiti writers with violating unfair competition laws because they're selling works on the strength of reputations built on vandalism.
Assistant City Attorney Anne Tremblay says these graffiti writers — all associated with the MTA tagging crew — have an unfair advantage over legitimate artists because they gained notoriety through crime.

Via.

3. WebMD:

Electronic faucets may be touch-free, but they are far from germ-free. In a new study, researchers at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine report finding higher levels of disease-carrying bacteria on hands-free faucets compared to conventional, manually operated faucets.

Via these sites.

*Buy chemistry sets at Amazon.

Illustration roundup

Spidey's Second Act by Matt Dorfman for the NY Times.



Flyer for an upcoming show featuring McBess.



Clone Trooper/Krayt Dragon fan.



Denis Zilber.



"Albino Nautolan Mandalorian Girl" by Master Cyrus.

*Buy McBess Dunnys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Psychiatry today:

Like many of the nation’s 48,000 psychiatrists, Dr. Levin, in large part because of changes in how much insurance will pay, no longer provides talk therapy, the form of psychiatry popularized by Sigmund Freud that dominated the profession for decades. Instead, he prescribes medication, usually after a brief consultation with each patient.

Via.

2. Stanley Chow was told by Lions Gate not only to stop selling his Mad Men illustrations, but to remove them from the internet. Via.

3. Andy Warhol meets Bob's Big Boy by Dave MacDowell.