Link roundup

1. A report that Chelsea Ives, "an Olympics ambassador who helped to promote the Games with London Mayor Boris Johnson was yesterday exposed as a riot suspect." Turned in by her mother. Via.



2. A fun conspiracy theory - - is this the real story behind Bin Laden's death?



3. Photo of Disney's Progress City.



*Buy Disneyland toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. "However, the volatile situation in Syria means that activists' methods to get documentation off the streets and onto social media are rapidly changing. Unconfirmed reports claim pen phones and small camera phones are being smuggled into Syria by anti-government expatriates and both the Saudi Arabian and American governments."

2. Fascinating article about pirates. When I read about the Barbary pirates in Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, I thought he was greatly exaggerating their exploits. But no:

Initially, the corsairs used galleys, which were fast and easily maneuverable, but the problem of supplying their rowing crews and soldiers, which could total some 184 men, limited their range. But European renegade sailors, such as John Ward, “without any doubt the greatest scoundrel that ever sailed from England,” as a courtier put it, and Danseker the Dutchman, known as the “Divil Captain,” were on hand to supply the expertise needed for a shift to sailing ships.

They could now raid along the British and the Irish Channels — they would even reach as far north as Iceland. Throughout the century, their raids caused havoc in coastal communities, with sailors and fishermen refusing to go to sea. In the Mediterranean, whole stretches of coast in Spain and Italy were deserted.

3. Useless, but a magical idea - - it looks like a camera, but when you press the shutter it doesn't take a picture. Instead, it pulls off from the net a random photo taken by someone else at that exact moment. Via these sites.

Link roundup

1. This baseball player is apparently having the worst ever defensive year and already owns the single season strike out record.

2. Piers Morgan's involvement in the voicemail hacking scandal.

3. Analysis of Iran's role in the uprising in Bahrain.

Link roundup

1. Puzzles by Brendan Wenzel (and others) for McSweeney's The Goods.

2. Game of Thrones being played out in Iran right now.

3. It's a new season of True Blood, which means it's time for Gabe Delahaye to resume his hilarious recaps.

Link roundup

1. "Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt."

2. Age of Conan is the latest MMO game to go the freemium route.

3. Tips on haggling.

Link roundup

1. NERF stands for NonExpanding Recreational Foam. Via.

2. Lots of interesting anecdotes in this article about Tina Brown (including how much money The Daily Beast and Newsweek have lost recently). For example:

As is not uncommon in preparation for Brown’s parties, that afternoon the room’s furniture was loaded into a truck, which was waiting, out of sight, for the last guests to leave before unloading its contents back into the apartment. Sir Harold Evans, Brown’s 82-year-old husband, has been known to joke with friends that he’d prefer to be in the truck, where he could circle the block in the comfort of his own home.

And:

As her guests said goodbye, Brown and Evans looked eager to get their furniture back. Suddenly the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy wafted in, dressed in black and trailing a cloud of cologne and his mistress, Daphne Guinness, who was wearing a revealing black cat suit and heelless Alexander McQueen platform shoes. Lévy was fresh from Paris, where, he proceeded to tell Brown and a few stragglers, he had just single-handedly persuaded his old friend President Nicolas Sarkozy to go to war against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. (A few days later, Steven Erlanger of The New York Times reported that this had, improbably enough, been the case.)

3. "An ongoing fight between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has taken a turn for the weird, as several of the president's closest advisers have been arrested and charged with being 'magicians' and invoking djinns, or spirits."

Link roundup

1. French baguette vending machine (the video is at the bottom). Via.

2. Thomas Barnett on Libya.

3. Pin-up drawing of the White Queen. And this is a cool vintage pin-up.

*Buy Emma Frost art at eBay.

Link roundup

1. One of Bill Simmons's readers had a great idea - - losing team in the NBA all-star game has to wear short shorts in next year's game.

2. Here's a great explanation for why Mubarak will be very reluctant to give up power - - he fears prosecution:

So, how can Mubarak protect himself if he eventually makes an escape from Cairo? He's taking the usual steps now. Start with his decision to install foreign intelligence chief and CIA confidant Omar Suleiman as vice president and constitutional successor. (Mubarak himself came to the presidency through this route; he had been Anwar Sadat's vice president.) This comes close to matching what in the Russian-speaking world is known as the "Putin option," a reference to the exit strategy adopted by a teetering Boris Yeltsin: Fearing possible retribution from opposition figures, Yeltsin opted to surrender power through a transitional period to a wily senior player in the intelligence community. In exchange, Yeltsin is said to have extracted a firm commitment from Putin that the full machinery of the Russian state would be mustered to protect him. There would be no criminal probes or inquiries, and no cooperation with foreigners who undertook the same. Yeltsin would be free to live his final days shuttling between Moscow and the French Riviera. Putin scrupulously kept his end of the bargain.

Via.

3. Here's Consumer Reports' picks for best frozen pizzas. (Presumably they'll have to reevaluate once the pizza/cookie dough combo is released.)

Link roundup

1. Mother Box iPhone wallpaper.

2. Sebastien Larroude posted a bunch of Tron Legacy concept art.

3. Thomas Barnett on Egypt:

Our military's relationship with the Egyptian military is long and deep and broad — as in, tens of billions of dollars of support since the mid-'70s. There's just no way Washington will stand by and watch all that gear fall into the Brotherhood's hands (like in '79), so rest assured that a vast network of personal relationships — as in, general to general — is being aggressively massaged right now. And remember: The Egyptian military has the ultimate veto, and the Pentagon holds the purse strings.

*Buy Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Jay Leno continues to earn great ratings.

2. Democracy just might be flourishing in Iraq.

3. This actually makes intuitive sense to me - - a study indicates that when people think about their ancestors, they become more confident and actually perform better in intelligence and spatial tests. So, the next time you feel down or stressed, think about all the generations that came before you, and draw strength from the knowledge that they were probably a lot like you.

*Buy home DNA kits at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Jay Leno continues to earn great ratings.

2. Democracy just might be flourishing in Iraq.

3. This actually makes intuitive sense to me - - a study indicates that when people think about their ancestors, they become more confident and actually perform better in intelligence and spatial tests. So, the next time you feel down or stressed, think about all the generations that came before you, and draw strength from the knowledge that they were probably a lot like you.

*Buy home DNA kits at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. You might remember that incredible Lego derelict mansion I posted awhile back. Prints are now on sale.

2. This bird is a huge jerk.

3. "Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran’s nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control." Via.

*Buy Lego at eBay.

Link roundup

1. "A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to find proof of high-altitude spying. Instead, the Guards had to report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the air force had blasted Iran's own unmanned aircraft out of the sky."

2. Deadspin revealed that the Marlins took the people of Florida for suckers and tricked them into funding a new stadium.

3. Operators lost control of a US Navy drone for about a half hour - - it flew into restricted airspace before they got it back under control.

*Buy remote control planes at Amazon.

Mandrake the Magician (link roundup)

Mandrake the Magician cover via.

And a few more links:

1. Check out "the remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community." More here. Via.

2. Redesigned luckdragon.

3. Analysis of recent developments in Turkish politics. Via.

*Previously: Zatanna magician poster.

*Buy magician posters at eBay.

Haunted House (link roundup)

Haunted House by Jason Limon, who has art on sale here.

And a few more links:

1. "Our main leisure activity is, by a long shot, participating in experiences that we know are not real. When we are free to do whatever we want, we retreat to the imagination—to worlds created by others, as with books, movies, video games, and television." Via.

2. Michael Chabon writes about the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla.

3. If Marmaduke was a horror movie.

*Previously: Horror movies recast with people as the villains.

*Buy haunted house props at Amazon.

Bat-eared fox, snub-nosed monkey (link roundup)

There are some extremely cute baby animal photos in this gallery. Via.

And a few more links:

1. How to use Google AdSense to land a job (or seriously creep people out).

2. Great analysis of cameras in 2D platforms.

3. Qataris marry their cousins and suffer lots of genetic disorders.

*Previously: Herschel Walker says he suffers from multiple personality disorder.

*Buy home DNA kits at Amazon.

Homemade Batman costume (link roundup)

Batman costume made from a hoody and an umbrella. Go here for instructions. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Probably the most incendiary idea expressed in SuperFreakonomics is that global warming, to the extent it's something we even really need to worry very much about, could be solved in a few years with cheap technology available right now - - specifically using a really long hose, held aloft by balloons, to shoot a relatively small amount of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. The sulfur dioxide would spread out, blanket the Earth, reflect sunlight, and thus cool the planet. (This is expected to work because it mimics the effects of large volcanic eruptions, which have been documented to lower the Earth's temperature.) It's one the many creative solutions to major problems developed by Intellectual Ventures. Of course, it raises the question, if it's so easy to manipulate the planet's weather, then how long until some rogue maniac tries something similar on his own?

2. Papercraft passed-out bear/shriner.

3. Reaping what you sow: A suicide bomber killed 29 in an attack on Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

*Previously: Homemade Where the Wild Things Are costume.

*Buy Japanese Batman toys at eBay.

Homemade Batman costume (link roundup)

Batman costume made from a hoody and an umbrella. Go here for instructions. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Probably the most incendiary idea expressed in SuperFreakonomics is that global warming, to the extent it's something we even really need to worry very much about, could be solved in a few years with cheap technology available right now - - specifically using a really long hose, held aloft by balloons, to shoot a relatively small amount of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. The sulfur dioxide would spread out, blanket the Earth, reflect sunlight, and thus cool the planet. (This is expected to work because it mimics the effects of large volcanic eruptions, which have been documented to lower the Earth's temperature.) It's one the many creative solutions to major problems developed by Intellectual Ventures. Of course, it raises the question, if it's so easy to manipulate the planet's weather, then how long until some rogue maniac tries something similar on his own?

2. Papercraft passed-out bear/shriner.

3. Reaping what you sow: A suicide bomber killed 29 in an attack on Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

*Previously: Homemade Where the Wild Things Are costume.

*Buy Japanese Batman toys at eBay.

Monstrous tortilla chips and salsa (link roundup)

Monstrous tortilla chips and salsa concept packaging by Jeanelle Mak. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Now this would of have been interesting - - awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the opposition in Iran. Via.

2. Digital tank camouflage on a tank. Weird how what looks like 8-Bit graphics is actually cutting edge.

3. Wait, you're not Data, you're Lore!

*Previously: Highly desirable cigarette packaging.

*Buy wind-up tanks at eBay.

Monstrous tortilla chips and salsa (link roundup)

Monstrous tortilla chips and salsa concept packaging by Jeanelle Mak. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Now this would of have been interesting - - awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the opposition in Iran. Via.

2. Digital tank camouflage on a tank. Weird how what looks like 8-Bit graphics is actually cutting edge.

3. Wait, you're not Data, you're Lore!

*Previously: Highly desirable cigarette packaging.

*Buy wind-up tanks at eBay.