https://www.connorwillumsen.com/

Earth from Saturn’s orbit via Cassini

• Share it like Cicero: How Roman authors used social networking
• The Sun, gravitational lensing and the 70 billion mile telescope
• DNA from a Russian cave: The Case of the Missing Ancestor
• Optogenetics: a new technique to controlling genes with light
• Scientists discover the molecule responsible for causing feelings of depression
• Life Satisfaction Linked to Personality Changes
• The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements
• From the Manson Myth to My Friendship with Charles Manson
• The 11-year-old who ran away so she wouldn’t have to get married
• Six Brain-Damage Scourges That Cripple IQ in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Cool webpage design/animation: Riding the New Silk Road
• Professor E. Paul Zehr on How Wolverine’s Claws Could Work
• 18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style
• 50 Great Works of Video Art That You Can Watch Online
• Great re-issue review of (one of) my Mountain Goats favourites: All Hail West Texas

• A lengthy, well thought out breakdown of Pokemon’s Post-Capitalist society
• What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows
• When launching a $200m rocket, install the parts right way up
• US agency baffled by modern technology, destroys mice to get rid of viruses
• Possible explanation for cosmic radio bursts: Meet the “blitzar”
• Sun’s Loops Are Displaying an Optical Illusion
• New Evidence: Antarctica’s Ancient, Ice-Covered Lake is Full of Life
• Study Finds Mammals Can ‘Choose’ Sex of Offspring
• 29-Year-Old Gets $15-Million to Decipher Song Lyrics
• The positive feedback loop: How IBM’s Watson Learns
• Marvel’s experimentation with the medium of digital comics
• Desert Bus: The Very Worst Video Game Ever Created
• If Films Were Reviewed Like Video Games
• Beverly Hills moms say pot makes them better mothers
• Artist uses rare comic book in paper mache sculpture
• 10 Musical Genres That Should Never, Ever Be Revived
• Planet of the Castors – Beaver kills man in Belarus

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)

Incedental Comics

• Fucking hell… How a fatal accident victim’s insurance company ended up in court defending her killer
• And then the story of how United Airlines lost a 10 year-old and didn’t care
• But at least the leader of an Hungarian anti-Semitic party discovered he’s Jewish
• Further interesting ‘discrimination’ as fight attendants force single men to sit away from unattended children
• From the New Yorker: Why nobody in America cared about the Sikh temple shooting
• The circle is complete as growing Indian companies begin outsourcing jobs to the US
• Just cause: Teddy Roosevelt’s magnificent sideburns
• Online: The lastest 360 degrees panorama of Mars
• How science-y are the social sciences?
• Forbes: Beck ‘produces’ a genius innovation that appeals to the user-generated generation
• Awesome is: this comic book store designed to look like a comic book
• 11 pop culture references younger readers won’t get
• Wow: Bill Finger – the Batman origin story you’ve never heard before
• I’m so making all of these: Simple ways to make food taste awesome
• Visualised (awesomely): the imports and exports of small arms (1992 – 2010)
• An ‘everyone-is-lying-to-me’ thriller movie trailer parody: Ghost Tits
• Also, there’s this pretty prophetic PSA by 5th grade kids about the internet (made in 1995)
• Today’s distracting online game: https://thisissand.com/

Finally, here’s a short video of the aptly named Teddy, the asshole cat…

Science/Tech stuff:

• From MIT: Scientists successfully map the mathematical computations of certain brain cells
• From NZ: Further understanding of how the brain allows for free will
• Awesome new tech: radio-wave based wireless power for the price of a penny
• I’ve always hypothesised drunkenly mused this: Scientists claim dark matter surrounds the sun

Arts-ish Stuff

• Woohoo: the potential for a third Bill and Ted movie
• A comic book based (but widely applicable) thought: When do you give up on a creator?
• Drinking has been covered, here’s how to eat like some of your favourite authors
• Editorial note to self: Writing under the influence of ourselves
• Random trivia: selling for US$4.3 million, Rhein II is the worlds most expensive photo (and it was photoshopped)

The rest (I suppose)…

• Fascinating read (even if it’s about Insane Clown Posse): The History of the Gathering of the Juggalos
• Even more ‘what the shit?’: A Mississippi county runs a ‘school-to-prison pipeline’
• Some photo portraits of ‘Preppers’ (people who actively prepare for ‘the end of the world’)
• Website: the Infographics Directory
• Video: The Wonder Years without voice-overs involves a lot of awkward silences
• This guy’s underwater GoPro footage of dolphins is pretty neat-o (music mix aside)

But this video of a dog attempting to steal some cabbage is just plain fucking adorable.

• Woah: Some unknown disease is causing a woman to grow fingernails instead of hair
• Tumblr: Famous album covers recreated with my socks
• Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch left some instructions in the advent of his death
• New favourite web comic: The Monkey’s You Ordered
• Drinking at work is good for creativity (not so much for productivity)
• Mitt Romney Sure Does Lie a Lot, Doesn’t He?
• Scary: Google to include your own Gmails in search results?

Also, this amazing 3 year-old bucket drummer… is only 3 friggin’ years old!

by Chip Zdarsky

History of Comics in 6 Panels with write up via Paul Lopes

• The first color 360-degree panorama from Curiosity
• The Internet May Have Upended Traditional Institutions, But It’s a Brittle Weapon
• The Internet Archive Now Offers Torrent Downloads
• New software that helps employers read your emotional state
• New Global Warming Culprit: Dams
• New salt-based battery a leap for green energy
• How rogue biohackers are revolutionising the human body
• The science of Staring
• A new prehistoric species of humans identified
• Conservative pundits are plain wrong: Barack Obama hasn’t lost Europe. That was his predecessor’s doing.
• How billionaire backers pick America’s candidates
• The Fog of War: How can we talk about the military if we can’t define what it is?
• The Elephant in the Map Room: The Israel/Palestine Border
• The 1916 Shark Attacks that were the inspiration for Jaws
• Wait… There’s a 30 minute longer cut of The Shining?