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Dear Puffin:
Sad news: Elizabeth Taylor died today, at age 79.
The date for the new Terry Pratchett book is Oct 13, 2011. (I know I’m late on this one but it was new to me!) It will be called Snuff and it will star Sam Vimes, (aka, Mr MacGuffin, aka Mr Sexypants, the official keeper of MacGuffin’s heart, the positive dream rabbit of all MacGuffin-esque romantic fanatsy). Guys, the dude has alzheimer’s and he’s still writing. How amazing is that? Confirmed here, and this is the blurb:
According to the writer of the best selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.
And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe, but many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.
He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and occasionally out of his mind, but not out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.
They say that in the end all sins are forgiven.
But not quite all…
Some folks on Reddit did a cool thing- they redesigned this fellows prosthetic leg to look like it came from a terminator! Neat!
Fuck Waldo, Where’s Stig? This is another brilliance flash from Rod Hunt, the great mind behind the safe sex penis theme park that we featured earlier. Rod is actively contributing to a better world, but there are two things I want to happen. A) I want a companion piece to Where’s Stig called Where’s Hammond, cause hes cute and teensy and B) I want the penis theme park to engage in unsafe sex with Candyland and birth the awesomest. game. ever.
On a depressing note, this is a map of human vulnerability to climate change. Moneyquote: “First global map suggests climate change will have greatest impact on the populations least responsible for causing the problem”. Here.
This is an old McSweeny’s article that I still love. Unused audio commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, recorded summer 2002, for The Fellowship of the Rings, Extended edition, Part 1.
Chomsky: Well, what we see here, in Hobbiton, farmers tilling crops. The thing to remember is that the crop they are tilling is, in fact, pipe-weed, an addictive drug transported and sold throughout Middle Earth for great profit….. without the pipe-weed, Middle Earth would fall apart. Saruman is trying to break up Gandalf’s pipe-weed ring. He’s trying to divert it.
Zinn: Well, you know, it would be manifestly difficult to believe in magic rings unless everyone was high on pipe-weed. So it is in Gandalf’s interest to keep Middle Earth hooked.
This is a visual history of humanity, made from crunching wikipedia data. And its really cool. Here.
Antony Wiener is doing an AMA on Reddit. He will answer the questions with the most upvotes at 5.30 today. Currently the frontrunner is a fairly tough attack on his absolute support for Israel. Im very interested to hear his answer. Thread is here.
The Atlantic has an extremely revealing story about DoD funding, focussed on one fighter plane project that will cost Australia. That is not a typo. This project (the purchase and use of 2,433 F-35 fighter planes) will cost more than Australia’s entire GDP. $924 billion dollars to buy the planes, plus another $620 billion to actually operate and maintain them. This adds up to over $1 trillion dollars. On some airplanes. That we probably don’t need and will never really use. That won’t be ready until 2016. Read the whole thing here.
But cheer up- the Comic Relief Doctor Who special was priceless
Part 1
Part 2
Some random links and thoughts for you Puffin
Above is a totally awesome flow chart to determine your Star Wars career path. Given my stupendous lack of enthusiasm for any jobs I’ve yet found IRL, I think I’ll become a bounty hunter. Via Onlineschools.org
These are my current favorite desktop pictures. Click to embiggen
The cutest condom promotion ever. Here.
A choose your own font Scrabble set that I really really want to exist. Here.
Someone has built a crazy accurate and totally adorable model of Bag End. I want to miniaturize myself and live here.
All my love
MacGuffin
We have some LOTR bracketology here, courtesy of Steve Thomas (Yes, again). The Angmar Ringwraiths vs The Isengard Uruk-Hai and the Hobbiton Hobbits vs the Gondor Rangers. Winner plays the Rohan Ruffriders. More on Steve Thomas’ site.
This is the Large Hadron Collider represented in …..quilt form? Here.
Awesome Alert: This is the Arrested Development version of Clue. I think its Buster, with the Cornballer, in the Banana Stand. Or possibly Lucille, with a seal, in the Law Offices of Bob Loblaw. Or Michael, with the Staircar in the Model Home. The game board is here, and its awesome. Awesome enough to warrant bold and italic.
A fascinating explanation of whats going with the failing nuclear power plants in Japan, here. The latest news is that the they’re planning to flood the chamber with sea water to prevent a melt down. Scary shit.
A graphic representation of the inner working of Kanye’s mind. Seriously, take a look at this.
GOP Budget cuts target tsunami warning center. No. Just….. no. Here.
The Darth-cade Fire and the Flaming Siths are playing at Galactic City Limits., along with Hoth Hoth Heat, the Arctic Wookies and Earth Windu and Fire. Flyer is here.
My buddy Tim has finally updated his utterly hilarious blog here.
This is a Tardis suitcase. Please please tell me its bigger on the inside…… It is actually for sale on ebay right now. The person who buys this will be crowned lord of the geeks and will be feted with beer and roses.
Yes, that is, in fact, a Tardis coffin. (Edit: the more I look at that the more it looks shopped. And the article is pretty far fetched as well. I wonder if it was spoof story?)
So, these two things exist and are horrifying. The first is a home anal and labial bleaching product (cause yes, you should be totally exited about the prospect of rubbing chemicals all over your lady bits) and the other is, and I cannot believe I’m saying this, is a dye for your vagina. One product puts the color in, the other takes it off. Its like Alice in Wonderland. For your cooch.
The Dalai Lama is retiring from his position as head of the Tibetan Government in exile, in favor of an elected leader. I admire the Dalai Lama hugely, and while I will be sad to see less of him, I can’t help but applaud this latest move. He will, of course, remain the spiritual leader of Tibet. Well done sir, as usual. Here.
I kind of want this comic strip picture frame, just so I can give my dog dialog. Here.
This is a hilarious site full of pictures of MRI mishaps. The gallery is priceless overall, but my favorite is the one with the floor waxer and the MRI machine in an unholy union. NSFW, floor waxer x MRI machine sex! Here.
Letters of Note is particularly excellent today. First there is an absolutely wonderful letter from Carl Sagan to the Explorers Club calling for the admission of women. Moneyquote:
“Traditions are important. They provide continuity with our past. But it is up to us to decide which traditions are essential to The Explorers Club and which are accidents of the epoch in which it was institutionalized…. if women are excluded the loss will be ours.” Read the whole thing here.
The Explorers Club admitted women the next year.
Next is a prank letter that finally addresses Tyler Durden’s eternal question of etiquette. “As I pass by do I give you the ass or the crotch?” Find the answer here.
And finally the infamous complaint letter of seat 29E, which simply must be read to be appreciated. Here.
This is why I love Shaq: He had a birthday party at the Children’s Museum, as part of the Big and Little exhibit. Which is awesome. Here.
And finally final, the Witch King of Angmar; steampunk version, from Max Arkes:
Another AMAZING bento box.
Its good to know sexism is still alive and well. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor talks about the weird and completely inappropriate questions she faced during her confirmation hearings. Money quote: ”I think they already know the color of my underwear”. From The Atlantic.
WE HAVE A DATE! The new season of Doctor Who will begin April 23rd. Here.
Reddit does, occasionally, come up with something funny. This is the apparently true story of how HP customer service accidentally confused an antique dresser for a computer and….. yeah, read it for yourself here.
This is an infographic explaining the timeline of the Pandorica storyline. View the whole thing Here, much much bigger.
ThePragmaticLeibnitz points us to Roger Ebert’s fantastic review of Battle: Los Angeles here.
This is a recipe for gold dusted rainbow cake balls. Yes. Yes please. Here.
Gorgeous retro travel posters for the Misty Mountains, Rivendell and The Shire from Steve Thomas Art. This guy is great, but I desperately want a Mines of Moria one. Sometime soon I’ll do the Mos Eisley, the Kessel Run and Yavin X wing show posters, which are similarly awesome. Vintage Lord of the Rings travel posters exist. Isn’t the internet awesome?
