Minority Opinion by Gino Ruggeri

• I have always detested the word meme, and not just because it was coined by Richard Dawkins, though that certainly helps”

  One of many gems in this great article on the ‘Meme Generation’. Dunno why I picked that quote in particular, given it’s just subjective snide humor, but really, the rest of the article is a fantastic observation into the culture of memes, media and meta-humour. Recommended.

• Here’s another good one – on the frequent fliers who flew too much
• From an former employee, this provides a great dissection and history of Amazon’s low margins business strategy
• A wonderful deconstruction of “first world problems” condescending attitude
• Studies show that ‘Moral Realism’ may lead to better moral behavior
• From the writers perspective: How much should ebooks cost?
• Great title: The Pope’s Dove of Peace attacked by Seagull of Irony
• What’s the price of copyright crime in New Zealand? Only $617
• Oh man, the original artwork for all 12 Watchmen covers will soon be up for auction
• I have zero knowledge about the film, but I love the design of Young and Wild‘s end credits
• Cleaning work at Rome’s Colosseum has turned up 2000 year old graffiti
• North Korea is now properly on Google Maps and here 4 interesting ‘must-sees’; Informative, though zero external links to the actual maps/locations. I’m really starting to despise this trend of closed system hyperlinks on blogs. (update: this one‘s at least links out with it’s list and be sure to check out the awesome user reviews)

• Being ‘it’: these guys have played a game of tag for 23 years now and it’s awesome
• Last Saturday, over 2800 spaceships clashed in a battle costing thousands of dollars
• Self-immolators in Tibet near 100 as pressure grows from China
• Smithsonian on the story behind Banksy
• Amazingly, this Russian family was cut off from civilisation for 40 years
• Strange Geographies: the beautiful and alien Iceland
• On Barnes & Noble and the end of the mega-bookstore
• Computer programming languages aren’t copyrightable, says a High Court judge
• Surgeon Simulator 2013 is the new medical QWOP
• Letter of Note: The Alien father is HR Giger
• A great list of 36 supervillain musical numbers
  (I have a huge hankering to re-watch Gremlins 2 right now)

Also, it’s pretty mean, but this edit of Lance Armstrong’s confession interview with Oprah recut to the lyrics of Radiohead’s Creep is very well done.

Rare Color Photography of Early 1900s Paris

• An interview with Steven Soderbergh on his career and quitting Hollywood
• How alcohol disrupts your REM sleep patterns
• Why Malaria’s Magnus is celebrated by Wales’ Wikipedia Day
• The Chapelle de Bathléem and its sci-fi gargoyles
• The ‘Horror Frog’ breaks its own bones to produce claws
• Nine cat behavior lessons
• Humans and animals: How and why do we pick our friends?
• The EU’s plan for 50,000 EV charging stations by 2020

Made almost entirely by Kaleb Lechowski, this impressive 6 minute short depicts a sci-fi world in conflict, as told through the interrogation of an alien combatant by its machine captor(s).

Short and smartly told, this is of course is made all the more impressive given the fact that Lechowski wrote, directed and animated this entirely by himself over a seven month period. It’s very well told and I especially liked the lighting and texture effects on display here. I have little idea how much easier it is to render that kind of detail these days, but it is mighty good work.

Some would (and have) nit-pick the fluidity of character movements and other aspects, but those people are assholes who can’t also say that they’ve made an entire animated film by themselves too (unless they’re Don Hertzfeldt or Makoto Shinkai, but I doubt that).

• A gamer ‘leaked’ fake news on the new Xbox and it went mainstream within hours, wonderfully re-illustrating just how easy it is to be a ‘source’ in today’s ‘information age’. Nicely done, though seems to think this is lack of journalistic integrity is unique to video game reporters. If only.
• Kottke on inexpert experts: The challenges of conversational journalism
• So, this techwriter dies and goes to heaven…
• The best shots fired in the Oxford Comma wars
• The deadly history of Persia’s ancient assassins
• Yeesh… the strange, violent reach of Israel Keyes
• Interesting feature: Why you truly never leave high school
• Grantland: A battle for the best Chappelle’s Show sketch ever
• Prototype: a privacy visor that blocks facial recognition software
• Must remember this for the next time I have a pool and/or a party: projecting onto 65,000 floating ping pong balls

Mexico’s Haunting Underwater Sculptures

• There’s currently a cheese fire in a Norway tunnel causing traffic issues
• “It might not get weirder than this” an account of being in a North Korean-visiting delegation
• How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp
• CurbTXT service: contacting drivers through their license plate
• Very interesting study into the growing dichotomy of our online and offline identity
• Sleep problems could jeopardise future missions to Mars
• Using pulsars as a form of interstellar GPS
• What would hyperspace travel really look like?
• How a quarter of the cow genome came from snakes
• How Leprosy reprograms the body
• Wired’s best of CES 2013
• It’ll certainly be interesting to see how Oculus Rift will effect gaming
• The ridiculously charming world of ‘Ni No Kuni,’ Studio Ghibli’s gaming masterpiece
• This device supposedly trains you to become a human compass
• A great send up on attending a tech press release conference (and subtly, tech ‘journalism’)
• Answered: How valid is the implied legal advice in Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”?
• The producer of ‘2 girls 1 cup’ has been sentenced to 4 years for obscenity
• Drew Struzan may return for the new Star Wars trilogy posters
• A great observational piece that goes behind the scenes of Paul Schrader’s The Canyons and what happens when you cast Lindsay Lohan in your movie
• Some anniversaries you can expect to see covered this year
• 7 Strategies to outsmart writer’s block
• Bad writing advice from famous authors
• The Serif Readability Myth
• Clay Shirky: Remembering Aaron by taking care of each other
• A gallery of 30 insane cloud formations from around the world
• Another gallery of 18 Funny Restaurant Signs
• This website interestingly maps and tracks every current flight: https://www.flightradar24.com/
• And then there’s this video of this dog strutting around on two legs. TWO!

• The ‘end of history’ illusion and why we can’t imagine getting old
• “The finite is nested within the infinite” (or my favourite parable: somewhere in infinity, an alternate universe exists where you are the Batman)
• Of last year’s bestselling sci-fi list, only one was published that year
• Does a techno utopia require physical books?
• Reshaping the brain: scientists reprogram neurons after birth
• The mysterious disappearance of the Russian Crown Jewels
• The courtroom sketches of Bill Robles
• Inside the prison journal of West Memphis Three’s Damien Echols
• Papers reveal extent of the British royals’ veto over bills
• The Guardian’s stats on the size of their commenting community
• The science of why comment trolls suck
• An interesting design proposal: I want the world to scroll this way
• Good god, someone’s patent application disturbingly mirrors the artificial second stomach sketch from Tim and Eric
• Parkinson’s treatment can trigger creativity
• Password security in Deus Ex
• What Games Are: the fun boson does not exist
• To look into: a best comedy books of 2012 list

Lastly, a super-cut of famous people playing themselves

• A Pickpocket’s Tale: The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins.
• Don’t read the comments! How online communities shape risk perception
• From Mubi: The Best Movie Posters of 2012
• Tree seeds offer potential for sustainable biofuels
• Japan cyber probe cops find cat collar clue
• Nice. PaperTab prototype wows at CES
• SSD predictions at CES: fewer OEMs, lower prices
• Adobe almost does something amazing by accident
• An account of living on 1.5kW
• Scientists look to fireflies to make a more efficient LED
• I’m heavily considering backing this thin-watch kickstarter
• An account of when 1080p does matter (vs. screen size vs. viewing distance)
• Another op-ed on The Hobbit’s 48HFR
• Also, this invisible driver prank video is pretty great