Friday Links!
First off, thanks to all of who you wrote in about the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company. Michael Hughes was first, and he let me know that there's quite a bit more to BSSC than meets the eye:What you might not know is that this was actually the brainchild of the writer Dave Eggers. You might know him best as the co-writer of the screenplay for the recent film adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are", though his semi-autobiographical novel "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is quite good too.
Anyway, this is actually the second of these sorts of shops, the first being a Pirate supply shop (Pirate Supply Store ). This shop was the first of now many shops affiliated with Egger's charity 826Valencia, a tutoring and mentoring organization dedicated to helping kids learn to write competently. They even publish their work and sell it in the shops.
If you're interested in knowing more about the history of the project, Eggers gave a TED talk in 2008 detailing the organization as well as providing a variety of touching anecdotes about it and how you can get involved if you wish. Here's the link: Eggers at TED.
Let me just add one note: the screenplay for "Where The Wild Things Are" was an absolutely brilliant piece of writing.
Okay, let's get this staring at your computer screen and clicking on links party started.
This is a wonderful story about Chelsea Baker, a 13-year-old badass knuckeball pitcher--who was taught by lengendary knuckleballer Joe Niekro.
Seriously, this is the greatest single catch I've ever seen.
From Brad Ruminer, and this is related to some of the atmospheric nuclear test links from the past two links, it's a video map of every nuclear explosion in history (well, up to 1998, anyway). What makes this video stand out is the artistry inherent in the design choices made in its creation--it's incredibly striking. And creepy.
From Amy Leigh, a clever and entertaining article about video game inspired shoes. Some, naturally, are entirely epic.
Frank sent in a link to a video demo of the Microsoft 3D technology I mentioned last week, and it's quite impressive.
From Andrew, and this is very funny, it's epic bear struggle (and it's not what you think).
From Clayton Lee, a tremendous music video parody titled Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind).
From Rob, a video of the funkiest looking shark you've ever seen, and it's positively prehistoric.
From Sirius, the discovery of buckyballs--in space. Also, and this is remarkable, it's Antarctic octopuses found with cold-resistant venom. Also, it's the world's smallest flowering plants.
From Tim Jones, a fantastic story about a man who has converted an organ into a chiptone keyboard.
From my boss, a story about the discovery of Shackleton's whiskey: and it's still drinkable, apparently.
From Nicholas Czekalski, a fascinating story about hidden underground fires.
Here are some wonderful vintage PC advertisements.
Frank Regan sent this in, and it's hard to describe, but it's basically a 3D display created with an LCD monitor (or an iPad, in this case) and a pyramid shaped screen. Also, a great story by Ken Levine titled Me & The Hells Angels.
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