• Bryan Stevenson’s crusade with the US justice system and why mass incarceration defines us as a society
• While Europe debates it, decriminalising prostitution has been great for New Zealand
• Craig Thornton and the obsessive world of underground cuisine
• “It’s so pervasive. It’s a virus.” Tom Waits’ 2002 letter on the commercialisation of songs
• The 25-GPU cluster that’ll crack a password in under 6 hours
• A letter to the TEDx community on TEDx and bad science
• Statistician Howard Wainer on the most dangerous equation (pdf)
• Study shows Fox News viewers have a 20 point lower IQ than the national average
• A man wrestled a shark to get back his nephew’s severed arm
• Wickr – now you can send ‘self-destructing’ messages
• A new trailer released for that South Park video game. Still looks good.

• Texas pastor asks whats keeping Christians out of church? Other ‘Christians’
• Google grants $1.2M to help analyze female roles in TV, film
• So apparently, we’re teaching dogs to drive here in New Zealand
• Surgeons implant the first ‘brain pacemaker’ for Alzheimer’s disease
• New evidence on how red wine can prevent cancer
• The latest eye research on emotional states and pupil dilation
• Scientists historical uncover evidence of Hawaiian megatsunamis
• Earliest known dinosaur discovered
• Mystery $35K donor to The Oatmeal’s Tesla museum fund revealed
• Bigthink op-ed: Kim Jong-Un isn’t sexy, but he’s not crazy either
• What James Cameron found at the deepest known point in the ocean
• Rolling Stones’ 50 greatest hip-hop songs

Still ill and slowly realising that I’ve not left the apartment since coming home sick on Tuesday. That, along with the combination of mindless video games in a zombified flu state, getting displaced with time, and the one book I’ve been reading is about a movie about a journey to a room (Zona by Geoff Dyer, suprisingly good given that it’s just about one film).

It’s got me think I should probably get out of the house today before I get anymore stir-crazy.

Building the Big Apple

• A record 58 percent of Americans say legalize marijuana
• “Officers shall not take any enforcement action … for a violation of I-502”
• An insight to reporting on a movie press junket (for The Hobbit)
• The Zapruder Film: the saddest and most expensive 26 seconds of amateur film ever made
• The curious case of Clairvius Narcisse, and other instances of Hatian “zombies”
• Exploring the Paris Metro’s eerie ghost stations
• UC Berkeley Librarian to Daily Cal sex columnist: ‘Please don’t f*ck in the Library’
• Journey soundtrack nominated for a Grammy

Been ill for the last couple of days and away from the world lately, but got sent this to my inbox the other night…

The following is an e-mail from the past, composed 2 years, 2 months and 20 days ago, on September 13, 2010. It is being delivered from the past through FutureMe.org

Dear FutureMe,

You just ate a salad, spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. Miles Davis is on the stereo. Whatcha eating tonight?

 

I also just discovered it’s actually Thursday and not Wednesday like I’d originally thought. Good times when you’re sick.

Also, a bowl of chicken soup with garlic bread.

• The BBC is making a six-part adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell!
• North Korea have found a secret Unicorn lair
• A rather rare interview with Fran Walsh on The Hobbit
• The really strong possibility to there being a Planescape: Torment sequel
• Apple, SSDs and the Fusion Drive rip-off
• The Austim Advantage
• The science behind those Obama campaign e-mails
• How long are people willing to wait for a video to load? Two seconds.
• A sociological take on the Powerball Facebook fake
• Video: a 1994 profile of… the Haunted Toaster
• Video: kitty in a claw crane machine

Yes.

• Photos: What it looks like inside Amazon
• Truth in advertising: The Birth of ‘Just Do It’ and Other Magic Words
• Christopher Nolan discusses making his first feature Following
• On Monday, not a single violent crime was reported in New York City
• Chew On This: 10 Food Idioms Explained
• Like it or not, non-replaceable CPUs may be the future of desktops
• Augmenting a light bulb to make a touch screen desk
• Prices have finally been announced for the Surface Pro
• Plus Microsoft have put out a pretty great self-depreciating ad for IE10

Jeremy Geddes is a photo-realistic painter from Melbourne, Australia. He is widely known for the Cosmonaut series of paintings, and has illustrated for comic book covers, in collaboration with friend Ashley Wood. Geddess won the Spectrum Gold Award for his cover art for the comic, Doomed. His children’s picture book, The Mystery of Eilean Mor, was shortlisted for The Aurealis Awards, won The Crichton Award, and was named as one of CBC Notable Books in 2006. (Wikipeida)

Official website

• ‘They’re like Cream, but worse’: Harsh early reviews of classic albums
• New York Time’s 100 notable books of 2012
• The great American unproduced screenplay
• Was Tycho Brahe poisoned? According to new evidence, probably not
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner: Have we always eaten them?
• Tips on how to avoid problem people
• How a man found out he has testicular cancer from taking a pregnancy test
• Thinking clearly about personality disorders
• Self-healing electronic skin that’s sensitive to the touch
• The Large Hadron Collider may have produced new matter
• And here’s an awesome interview with Bill Murray