Aelfgyfu

"If Games Had Super-Easy Mode". I think my favorite may be Pong. Warning: a little sick.

... I have friends who are. I've also worked in libraries, though it has been a while.

See nialla42's post with links to a Chicago Fox News article about whether libraries have outlived their usefulness—and the response from Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey. (Sure, you could get there from my links too, but Nialla has concise commentary, too.)

Fun article on the ICanHasCheezburger empire, the man who built it into what it is today (though he didn't originally found the site), and how it all came together.

For all of you who haven't seen a link from kalquessa (or maybe others), run, don't walk, to Cake Wrecks: the Stargate edition.

No, I didn't go. I kind of wish I could--but I understand there were 100,000 people there?! I don't think I could handle that!

The next best thing to being there, I figure, is watching other people's videos of it. I've got a link to the first of a set of five videos from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con Doctor Who panel! It's actually numbered "2"; I don't know why. I can't find any numbered "one," and it goes up through six (so there are five of them). When I watched the first/second one, links to the others popped up in the side strip with related material, so I watched them all. The sound quality is fairly good--quite good for something (illicitly) taped at a con. I could turn up my sound and spend the time cleaning up my home office without missing much of what was being said.

Steven Moffat is screamingly funny. Julie Gardner talks much less, and she's less outrageous, but she keeps tossing in zingers. I really enjoyed these videos.

Now I see the same person, Gonturan74, has uploaded a Torchwood panel video--numbered "1". I hope that means there are more coming!

Yes, yes, I know everyone else has already seen the season ender of TW! We're watching on BBCA, okay? We just saw "From Out of the Rain" last week and will watch tonight's episode (whose title I can't even recall; I'm really avoiding spoilers now, srsly)!

A few fun links (stolen from others) and assorted musings below the cut. ( Spoilers through 'From Out of the Rain' )

I can't remember who posted this first, but I can't get it out of my head, so I thought I'd share:
ROFLMAO on YouTube. (I've started saying "fu teh wuh" because of this. Oh, dear!)

Of course, this is funny because I still hold dear "Mahna Mahna," which I saw on The Muppet Show and, before that Sesame Street (you can dig that one up on YouTube as well). (Note: I have not been able to verify the spelling of "Mahna Mahna.")

I must also recommend pkabyssinian's post on Celebrity Jedi Chefs, complete with link to the index of Celebrity Jedi Chefs. It's amazing how many of our favorite stars are Jedi Chefs! Who knew?

A couple more great links:

The British Library's Turning the Pages Project. Apparently you need Vista to get the full effect, but even on a Mac like mine you can get a good view. Annoyingly, I can't open the cover with Safari, but the slider works fine. You can also see Jane Austen's handwritten History of England.

Pretties! The British Museum lets you look at their collections online! Just use the Search box in the upper-right hand corner to look for, say, "Anglo-Saxon" or "Egypt."

Two links:

I support the writers (in case there was any doubt of that)--and I don't think we need to worry about strike breaking if this is the networks' solution: Leaked Fox 24 s7 Preview.

And then there's this: Beowulf for Business: The Modern Warrior's Guide to Career Building. If only I were in business, I would have to get a copy.

Speaking of which, back to work....

Links and a little commentary:

A Boston Globe article on Neanderthals. It's sad that they chose to title it: "Stone Age feminism? Females joining hunt may explain Neanderthals' end" when the article has far more interesting material, and the idea that women hunting may have contributed to Neanderthal extinction is only one of many theories. Clearly they want a headline that sucks us in, but jeepers! I'm tired of seeing the word "feminism" attached to things that bear little relation to modern feminism, and here, as often happens, the connotations are negative. The article also brings up the theory that homo sapiens committed genocide, with this comment from Svante Paabo: "humans and Neanderthals coexisted for thousands of years, so I think talk about genocide says more about how modern humans think...."

That almost segues into a frightening glimpse of now. I'm aware of research into a number of non-lethal weapons, and I think it will be a great thing if riots can be stopped without shooting people and perhaps one day wars can be made less deadly. However, non-lethal weapons also bring the temptation to use weapons where no weapon at all is needed. Here's a Wired piece on acoustic weapons at a predominantly peaceful protest in Tbilisi, Georgia. The imbedded video is three-and-a-half minute clip from a news broadcast (Russia News?) that gives a little background on the protests, including the fact that they've been mostly peaceful and that this suppression came after calm had returned, and a brief look at what appears to be an acoustic weapon. The article contains another link that leads to this video (cannot be imbedded) that shows more of the acoustic weapon.

What neither shows very much is how badly the victims were affected; there are a number of ambulances present, and some people had already been taken to hospitals before the news clip. I know there has been concern that acoustic weapons can cause permanent hearing damage, and of course the water cannon and tear gas they used have their own, better-known risks. (More background can be found in this article in The Economist.)

I hope those working on non-lethal weapons are watching closely to see how severe the effects are. I could hardly find any news coverage mentioning the acoustic weapon using Google; only Wired seems to be paying much attention.