The Scientific Method of Oz - Reel Science on Blip
Okay, you’ve got me interested. Actual LOLs within.
The 10 best first lines in fiction | The Observer
This seemed apropos a Sunday morning post.
Another friend developed a standard response to people who ask why he unfollowed them on Tumblr. “Oh, I moved you to my RSS reader,” he lies.
spiegelman
Ten bucks this is about Tyler Coates.
(via nudawn)
I really don’t understand this social obligation of multiple platform interpersonal engagement. Facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc. - I can be friends with you in person, but think your online persona is an asshole, or that you have shitty taste in what to post online. And vice versa - the same goes for how other people look at me. I don’t need to be a central hub of your online life just because we grab beers together.
I’ve unfollowed and been unfollowed by close and distant friends, and whenever someone clicks that button on one of my accounts, there seems to be this expectation of drama. More often than not someone lets me know that they’re just not into my political posts or cat videos or whatever, I let them know they’re welcome to unfollow me as I won’t be offended, and they sign in relief and let me know it’s already happened. I don’t really care, and frankly neither should you. Our friends are our friends in some part because we don’t spend every minute of every day with them. We shouldn’t expect more from them online than we do in meatspace.
If you’re friends with me in person, please feel free to follow or unfollow me anywhere online - I’m going to act the same around you either way. Please don’t feel obligated to do so, or to stick around if I’m not adding some sort of value or entertainment to your every-day social media life. If I am, cool. If not, feel free to unfollow me wherever you feel is most appropriate. I won’t ever ask you why not - that’s just too arrogant even for me. Just do me the favor of the same.
(via nudawn)
Doctor Who 2005-2009: The Skip It/Watch It Guide
If you haven’t watched Doctor Who, or tried to but just count get into it, I highly recommend you check out Liz’s guide.
I’d been told dozens of times how awesome Doctor Who was, but I just couldn’t get past the cheese factor in the first season. There was something…I dunno, intentionally bad about the series that really bothered me and it kept me from ever getting invested.
Enter Liz Miller, tastemaker, pop culture analyst, lover of all things British, and a definite Whovian.
After hearing my comments about just not getting into it, she took it upon herself to write up a definitive guide to how you should watch (or not watch) the first 4.5 seasons of the show with the goal of making it approachable and enjoyable for the Who novice. And she succeeded. In fact, not only did I get into the show, I’m now completely caught-up (Thanks Netflix!) and eagerly anticipating the next season.
I’ll even go out on a limb and say that I get it now. I love the characters. And the adventure. And the humor. And Rose (though she’s recently been replaced by Amy as my favorite companion.) I especially love the season-long, and multi-season long arcs that are just so damn skillfully pulled off.
Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like the intentionally cheesy episodes, but they become less and less frequent over the first couple seasons, eventually disappearing altogether. But the funny thing is that even within those episodes, there are hints and groundwork for greater things, all of which eventually pay off.
And when it’s good…well, it’s damn good. Even better, when it’s great, it’s some of the best television ever produced.
Yes, ever. Not just some of the best sci-fi, or some of the best British TV. There are some episodes of Doctor Who (Blink, in particular) that I consider to be the very best that TV can offer up as an entertainment and artistic medium.
So thank you, Liz, for the work you put into this, as I’ve reaped many rewards from your efforts. And thanks to Rudy, Jay, Steph, and everyone else who told me for so many years how much I would enjoy this show.
Because I do. I really, really do.
I get it now.
fan made Doctor Who 50th Anniversary trailer.
chills.
This makes me want to watch the new seasons all over again.
Oh Google…
Welcome to LA.
Who voted how on CISPA, organized by State.
Very happy my rep voted No - very unhappy so many others voted Yes.
Statistically, the most dangerous roads are those in town where the speed limit is 30. The safest roads are motorways, which have a limit of 70… It seems to me that the best solution is to impose a minimum speed limit of, say, 175mph. Because if you are travelling through suburbia at this speed, it is extremely unlikely that you would retreat into a daydreamy world of work, phone calls and Colin Firth coming out of a lake with a wet shirt.
Jeremy Clarkson answer for “distracted driving” (via topgear)
He’s joking, but I attribute a large part of my never having caused an accident (been rear-ended sitting at a stoplight twice) to three main factors:
- I drive fast. I always have. I don’t drive overly-aggressively or dangerously (what I attribute to never having been ticketed for speeding) but I’m usually moving faster than the average speed of traffic. It really forces you to pay attention, and to consciously track the other cars on the road as well as how they’re being driven.
- I drive sports cars. Aside from being more fun (see above) I think there’s a huge amount of added safety in having better handling, better braking, and more road feel. My body and/or life has been saved several times from being able to avoid or accelerate out of a dangerous situation. For instance, an SUV in front of me blew a tire and veered into my lane before rolling. An emergency two-lane change at 75 isn’t child’s play, but my car handled it with aplomb and I swung around to the right. The Camry behind me handled it more poorly though, locking up the brakes and slamming into the side/top of the SUV.
- Sports cars aren’t isolated. The vast majority of cars sold seek to eliminate as much external sensory input as is economically possible. Some even advertise how little it will feel like you’re driving, sporting noise isolation, cushy suspensions, heated/cooled/vibrating seats…and the complete elimination of any external stimuli that will remind you you’re hurtling two tons of metal and flammable liquid down an asphalt road and controlling it with a grand total of two square feet of rubber at any given moment. Driving is dangerous, but also routine. The elimination of all of those “uncomfortable” elements - even in the name of increased consumer satisfaction - coupled with that habitualized and routine nature of the process, is inherently dangerous.
30 miles an hour, comfortable, thinking about your day, not feeling or hearing a thing around your car is how accidents happen. You’re not paying attention because your car is designed to make you feel like you’re not driving a car. Distracted driving isn’t just cell phones, it’s anything - even your own car - that’s inherently designed to keep you from “having to” think about driving in the first place.
(via topgear)
Every once in a while I sit down and really listen to the lyrics of indie rock songs, and it reminds me to never really listen to the lyrics of indie rock songs.
Nintendo's Hard Choice
Things are not nearly as bad for Nintendo as they are for Sony, but this is obviously not good:
Nintendo will report on Thursday its first ever operating loss, after estimating a 45 billion yen deficit for the business year just ended.
I will always have a soft spot for Nintendo. In my opinion, they have by far the best game IP ever created. It’s not even close. And that’s why, as much as it pains me to say it, I think Nintendo will eventually have to head down the Sega path and move on from hardware to focus solely on software.
It’s well known that Mario/Zelda/etc creator Shigeru Miyamoto has no intention of letting this happen — like Apple, he strives to set the entire user experience through hardware and software — but it’s hard to see Nintendo focusing on gaming hardware and continuing on. Maybe they pull and Apple and fully reinvent the company, but there’s a reason why such transformations don’t happen often.
On the flipside, maybe I’m letting my dreams blind me a bit. I really, really, really want Mario and Zelda and Donkey Kong and all the other great Nintendo properties on iOS devices.
Tagging in here: I just don’t see the WiiU being a big enough hit this Christmas to turn them around.
I was pretty on-the-record with my thoughts that the Wii would succeed, as I thought it was genius market placement that fixed the mistakes Nintendo made the previous two console cycles. I’ll be equally on-the-record that I think the WiiU will fail and fail hard.
in fact, this may end up being what kills Nintendo, just one console cycle after bringing them back from the edge. It makes me sad to write that, but I honestly think it may end up being true.
I love it when a plan comes together.Pride and prejudiced being adapted as a Vlog… I’m in heaven
especially since all the characters have their own active accounts on tumblr and twitter, ect.
my favorite little detail? instead of the traditional Bingley scene, telling Darcy “COme man! I must see you dance! I’ve never seen pleasanter or prettier girls in my life!,” etc., Darcy was obviously brooding with his phone and Bing Lee tweeted him XD “get off your phone and dance”
THAT IS THE CUTEST THING EVAR I MEAN IN THE SERIOUS OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAHA PERFECT SENSE
click here for Lizzie’s tumblr, and click here to the Watch All playlist, they’re doing little three minute episodes, only five so far
P.S. Although Pride and PRejudice doesn’t exist in their world for obvious reasons, Jane Austen (they’ve mentioned Sense and Sensibility) and the Bridget Jones Diaries (inspired by Pride and PRejudice) do. So when they have Lizzie say she loves any movie starring Colin Firth - who played Darcy in the best adaptation ever in the history of all time sexiness 1995, and also played the Darcy character in Bridget Jones Diaries - I was all - I see what you did there.
P.P.S. Seriously the Jane Austen geek in my is flaring up. The happy geekery!!!!
It’s a really fucking good plan too.
Frozach Submitted
- C
- C
- D
- B
- A
- B
Not bad, but were it me I’d be going with:
- D - For effective close-range situation-handling when you just need to get out of there.
- D - The quietest of the group, allowing me to keep from having to engage until I want to.
- D - Strong, versatile, sharpen it on a rock, will outlast me.
- C - Most useful for more scenarios.
- C - But not to drive around in, it’s the only one you can sleep in and know there isn’t fuck all going to come inside while you’re out.
- A - The dude was A) chief scout, and B - SAS, so he can help find food, knows how to survive, and can damn sure handle a gun.
