Linkszomania for September 30, 2009

Every Wednesday, I’m going to take you on a whirlwind adventure of 13 links chronicling the news throughout the geek world I inhabit. Whether it’s movies, music, art, politics, gadgets, science, sports, grammar, or superheroes… nothing’s out of bounds and everything’s interesting.

Let it begin…

  1. This week brings us a phenomenal Wired story about the forthcoming reality of cable television being destroyed by streaming media services like Netflix. Good points are made. This passage summed it up well: “it is odd, in an era when the Internet seems able to worm its way into every part of life, that nearly all of us still watch television the old-fashioned way”.
  2. “Giant Babies” should be a permanent news category in all major newspapers. And this story would be the biggest (pun totally intended) “Giant Baby” story in a long time.
  3. In the wake of his recent passing, the work of William Safire (a columnist who once served as President Nixon’s speechwriter) has garnered quite a bit of additional attention. The most intriguing installment was the piece Safire drew up for President Nixon to read, in the event that the Apollo 11 astronauts weren’t able to make it back from the Moon. We need more documents from haunting alternate histories.
  4. If you’ve ever tried to crunch the numbers of city blocks vs. distance vs. time waiting for a bus (and all other factors) while in a hurry, Visual Motive has arranged a new chart that breaks down when you should walk and when you should just wait for the bus.
  5. Everyone wants to help their favorite websites out (without, y’know, paying money) and many think that clicking advertisements on those sites can help. But can it, really? Slate investigates.
  6. This unique façade design not only looks like a bunch of melting, dented steel but also (apparently) serves as a great tool for capturing daylight in areas where direct exposure to the Sun is not available.
  7. I think I would go to an actual “Lego Monsters” art gallery every week, regardless of whether or not the exhibitions ever changed.
  8. FlowingData has created an animated map showing how Target went from just one location into a massive empire of retail success; in the last ten years, that bullseye has spread faster than the Motaba virus in Outbreak.
  9. France wants to put health warnings on any published photographs that utilize airbrushing/general modification, to protect audiences from inferring “enhanced” beauty as being realistic. I guess it’s a good idea (albeit a little weird).
  10. Speaking of the French, a big national train company from the land of L’Hexagone was one of the few firms to submit a serious proposal to get involved with the American plans to put some of our stimulus money towards high-speed rail.
  11. Every few months, we manage to unexpectedly discover a bunch of new animals all at once. Buy stock in “Bigfoot” and “Nessie” now, people because they’re coming for us.
  12. Stuart Miller has an idea about how to alter the parameters of baseball’s Triple Crown to make it more modern and relevant, as it relates to a player’s single-season accomplishments. The concept alone makes the piece worth reading but there’s a legendary comment about halfway through (from retired player Tony Clark) that perfectly illustrates the naïveté of “old guard” baseball players and writers, when it comes to ignorantly disregarding modern statistics.
  13. Someone realized that Ohio has exactly 88 counties – the same number of keys contained within a piano and, well… one thing led to another.

Have a week!

Justin Brown

Justin Brown is an artist and writer living in Virginia. He channels most of his enthusiasm into making things for his online art shop, Artness! by Justin Brown. You can keep up to date with him, his worldly adventures, and his dogs by following him on Instagram and on Facebook