Thursday, December 30, 2010

Friday Links!

Okay, in a rare and shocking development, I'm taking today off and posting Friday Links one day early--I'm trying to understand classes in VB.NET and it's killing me, so this will give me a few extra hours to study (plus, with New Year's Day on a Saturday, almost all of you are on holiday tomorrow). On Monday, I'll have the top 10 games of 2010, and on Tuesday, the top ten games of the decade (which I might have done last year already--I'll have to check). Best wishes for the New Year to everyone.

From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, an amazing bit of sleuthing: encoded Civil War message arrives 147 years too late.

For your enjoyment: an incredibly wonky article about mathematical probabilities in Monopoly.

From Skip Key, an absolutely terrific interview in Gamasutra with Rebecca Heineman, an old soul in the gaming industry who had a hand in so many major titles.

From Eliot Rogers, a man who rides a unicycle and plays the bagpipes--at the same time.

From Clayton Lee, and this is both very funny and NSFW, a music video: I Just Had Sex.

From Jacob Jaby, an amazing street musician known as The Birdman of Lisbon.

From Mr. Fritz, a very funny Jimmy Kimmel skit: Unnecessary Censorship: Sesame Street.

From Scott Sanders, and this is a very Tufte-esque link: Data Visualization.

From Kevin, and this is extremely interesting, it's Why the other line is likely to move faster, a look at queuing theory.

From Sirius, and this is very cool: A $670,000 X-Ray Camera That Sees Through Melting Metal. Also, and these are quite beautiful, take a look at The Living Bridges of India. Next, it's really deep snow.

From David Byron, an interesting look at the Uncanny Valley: Dead or Alive? The Eyes Hold the Answer.

From George Paci, a fascinating and amusing article about certain aspects of the business culture in China: Rent A White Guy.

Here's a terrific story from Michael O'Reilly: Homeless man lived double life in the U.S. for 40 years.

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