Link roundup

1. Chipotle's spinoff ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen is doing well enough to justify a second restaurant in DC.

2. Belichick Breakdown's are weekly posts by Bill Belichick explaining football plays. Relatedly, here's some detailed analysis of what to expect in the Saints/49ers and Broncos/Patriots.

3. ESPN suggests that Kobe is driven to humiliate Steve Nash:

When Bryant got the chance to go one-on-one with Nash in the first half Tuesday night, he even changed his signature sound. Normally Bryant calls for the ball by using his tongue to push staccato bursts of air through his teeth. It sounds kind of like the Smoke Monster on “Lost.” As soon as Nash switched onto Bryant, however, Kobe made sure he wouldn’t miss out on the opportunity. He posted up Nash on the right block and let loose a holler that could be heard throughout Staples Center.

“Whooo!” he yelled. “Whoo!”

4. Artist looking for commissions.

5. 50% off t-shirts at Zazzle with the code FFHSFRIDAY13. I recommend Miskatonic University, Vonster, Steve Thomas, Franco Brambilla, Adam Koford, and my own store. (FYI, at least in my store you can customize with a wide variety of shirt types and colors.)

Link roundup

1. Jason Chalker is looking for commissions.

2. Boing Boing has details and more photos of the Portal Christmas tree.

3. Serious Eats says don't buy Costco's $20 champagne. Buy $15 Domaine J. Laurens Cremant de Limoux Brut.

4. Brief summary of all 30 NBA teams.

5. I love Nike product descriptions:

Nike’s Proprietary Flywire Technology Offers Great Fit Support: the outsole of the Nike Fly Leather J Elite SHA|DO uses the leather sole, the most trusted sole among bukatsu players, and Nike’s proprietary traction system that maximizes a player’s potential at base running.

6. Dave MacDowell posted a bunch of recent paintings (NSFW).

7. How one person achieved 1 million karma points at Reddit. (Short answer: "I spend about 3-4 hours a day on Reddit.")

Bumpy Pitch x Nike t-shirts

Raiders, Lakers, Giants, and Celtics-themed t-shirts by Bumpy Pitch and Nike on sale here. Via.

Link roundup

1. Wide-ranging interview with Robin Williams about many of his famous roles (including how Star Wars led to Mork and Mindy). On Popeye:

Literally, near the end of the movie ... the studio had pooled all of the money, so all the special effects people left. It was Ed Wood the last weeks of the movie. Shelley Duvall was in a pond, basically, with an octopus with no internal mechanism, having to drape it over her body like a feather boa.

(That octopus scared me badly.) Via.

2. Telltale Games employees were caught posting perfect 10 reviews to Metacritic for their game Jurassic Park (which is apparently terrible).

3. Speaking of video game reviews, here's a really well-written review of Super Mario 3D Land.

4. Good article by Bill Simmons on the NBA negotiations.

*Buy the 3DS at eBay.

Link roundup

1. How to hire an artist to illustrate a book cover (and how much it costs).

2. Mumm-Ra paper toys.

3. An assertion that Cleveland sportswriters were well aware of Delonte West's mental problems (and witnessed various outbursts) but decided not to report on them.

4. The process of adding a custom domain to a Blogger blog has been simplified (with Go Daddy).

5. New shirts on sale at Last Exit to Nowhere - - Bedford Falls and Cyberdyne Systems (new color).

6. The BBTS has available for preorder Marvel Select movie versions Hulk and Hawkeye.

Link roundup

1. Now here's a lawyer who knows how to specialize - - he's sued Allen Iverson three times.

2. How to keep a blog anonymous. Via.

3. "Everything You Need to Know About Using iTunes Match."

4. It's that time of year where USC and UCLA have to hide their school mascots - - "the Bruin Bear is enclosed by an approximately $5,000 box engineered like a jigsaw puzzle."

Link roundup

1. Grantland's picks for NBA players most likely to be cut by their teams (if a deal is reached and the deal allows each team to cut one player to clear cap space).

2. Rebrickable: Using Lego sets you already have, find out what new sets you can build with the same parts. Any extra parts needed will be shown for you.

3. Things From Another World's latest nick and dent sale.

Link roundup

1. Remember that David Bowie/2001-inspired book I (and everyone else) mentioned a few weeks ago? The artist has been threatened by the copyright holder.

2. A summary of the NBA owners' bargaining positions.

3. "There's a famous legend that America spent millions on the development of a 'space pen' that writes upside down, while the Russians used a pencil. Here's the truth behind the legend."

Link roundup

1. True Hoop: "Poor handwriting on a birth certificate changed Shane Battier's family name from 'Battle' to 'Battier' and they just went with it."



2. I didn't see the movie, so I don't know if I'd agree, but both reviews I read of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (produced and co-written by Guillermo del Toro) criticized the monster design.



3. From the introduction to a podcast: "Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk co-founded BioWare, the RPG-oriented group that now consists of five locations within Electronic Arts. They started out as doctors (actual practicing medical doctors, mind you), and BioWare was once a developer of games as well as medical software."



4. The upcoming Aliens game for the DS sounds terrific.

Link roundup

1. Comment and win a comic book-themed prize pack.



2. "According to a new report and subsequent story in the Washington Post, in the first six months of 2011, the USPS paid $4.3 million in compensation to workers on 'standby time' – work hours where, due to low mail volume, employees show up to work but just sit in the break room. In 2009, $30.9 million was paid in 'standby' salary."



3. Grantland on the NBA: "Michael Jordan is . . . one of the most adamant owners in favor of reducing player salaries."



4. Since Olly Moss's Resistance 3 cover art is in the news today, allow me to mention that I posted wallpaper-sized versions in May.

Link roundup

1. The winners of the Neil Gaiman-inspired short story competition.



2. Weekly Standard reporter in Libya:

I helped call in my first NATO strike yesterday. We were being shelled.

Via.



3. Apparently Ron Artest is going to be on Dancing With the Stars.

Link roundup

1. Getting banned from Google+ not only leads to being banned from other Google services, but also apparently prevents you from even viewing other people's public Google+ pages.



2. Bill Simmons's latest podcast is an hour-long interview with David Stern about the state of the NBA lockout.



3. The Germanic conquest of England, circa 400 AD:

The massive movement of people was apparently triggered in 407 A.D., the year in which the ailing Roman Empire withdrew much of its army from Britain. Soon afterwards, it stopped paying its soldiers altogether. As a result, the last legionaries took off.



This left the island unprotected, an opportunity that the starving people on the continent couldn't pass up. Angles, Saxons and Jutes left their mound dwellings and broad bean fields in the wetlands of northern Europe in droves.



Entire family clans set out to sea, usually in the spring and summer when the water was calm. Their ships were bulging with household goods, cows and horses. According to an old chronicle, the land of the Angles was soon "abandoned."

Via.

Link roundup

1. Photos of Shaq and his tiny girlfriend, who was apparently on Flavor of Love.



2. "An employee of the Mark Twain House and Museum in West Hartford, Conn., has admitted in court to embezzling $1 million from the organization that maintains the author's historic home."



3. Penelope Trunk has a good take on negative blog comments.

Link roundup

1. File away this prediction by Bill Simmons:

Best-case scenario: NBA season starts in Feb. And that's the best-case scenario. I don't think I've ever been more disenchanted with Stern.

2. Map of time capsules buried under Los Angeles. Via.

3. More 3A Toys news:

ThreeA is proud to announce that it has partnered with amazing Japanese artist Kow Yokoyama to produce Maschinen Krieger in both 1/12 and 1/6 scale! If you think you know Maschinen Krieger think again - ThreeA is about to bring you a whole new world.

Furthermore we will be producing figures for the upcoming blockbuster Reel Steel in 1/6th scale. The Reel Steel movie directed by Shawn Levy stars our own boy from Oz, Hugh Jackman.

4. "The Billionaire Sheikh Who Carved His Name Into an Island." (You can see it from space.)

*At Toycutter: Custom 3A Toys.

*Buy 3A Toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. It's 60% off posters at Zazzle with the code ZBDAYPOSTERS -- I recommend posters by Steve Thomas, Franco Brambilla, and Adam Koford.

2. Apparently there are 60,000 unsolved murders in Rio de Janeiro, and 24,000 victims haven't even been identified. Via.

3. An assertion that China will lose interest in the NBA with Yao Ming retiring. (It's certainly interesting that there's been no other Chinese players to make an impact in the NBA since him.) Via.

4. Portal to another world. And a similar photo from the same street.

5. Remastered children's books of questionable taste.

Link roundup

1. "How to Create an In-Case-of-Emergency Everything Document to Keep Your Loved Ones Informed if Worst Comes to Worst."

2. Free mp3 download of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother audiobook.

3. You'll only get this if you follow the NBA, but Dwight Howard and Gilbert Arenas have been engaging in a planking contest at Twitter, and then Dwight Howard posted this.

Link roundup

1. Reggie Bush has apparently decided not to turn over his Heisman trophy after all. (Good, let them explain some more why he shouldn't keep his trophy, but Cam Newton can.)

2. A primer on the NBA contract negotiations (it's pretty optimistic that a deal will get done).

3. Age of Conan is now free to play.

Link roundup

1. Chad Ford on the NBA draft:

The process is now both bigger and more impersonal. The more money teams spend, the more they believe they have a competitive advantage by hiding information from others. In 2001 I could get five GMs in a room to talk in detail about prospects (Jerry Krause excluded). Now … good luck. And the result? Despite all the innovations, teams are getting worse, not better, at making draft picks.

Between 1990 and 1999, 37 percent of all lottery picks turned out to be All-Stars. 31 percent were busts.

This decade, just 21 percent of all lottery picks have turned into All-Stars, while a whopping 42 percent are draft busts.

2. Team Fortress 2 is now free to play.

3. San Diego Padres pitcher Evan Scribner wearing a Yoda backpack. (Bottom of the page.)

Link roundup

1. Grantland's overview of the NBA teams making lottery picks, and guide to the expected lottery picks.

2. Design a new head for Deadmau5 contest.

3. Here's the 25% to 35% off items at Things From Another World for June. Lots of new single issues and collected editions of comics.

But where's the Bash Brothers poster?

Classic 80's athlete posters get their due at Salon 94. I'm strongly considering picking up one of the L.A. Law posters at eBay.