Lady Bullseye

By George Kambadais.

Nightmare fuel

Snowy Owl invasion explained. Good Lemming year in the Arctic. Check out nest with 70 cached Lemmings from N. Quebec pic.twitter.com/TtcajnH4Az

— Paul Sweet (@pablo_dulce) December 31, 2013

Snowy owls kill lemmings and store their carcasses around their nests.

"How Home Depot Copied Apple to Build an Ingenious New Bucket"

Wired looks at Home Depot's efforts to reimagine stale products like buckets.

Doing business in France

Bloomberg:

In November, France banned Amazon.com from delivering books for free, saying the company risked driving the country’s independent bookstores out of business.

...

When Uber, the taxi app, was launched in Paris (where taxi service is a perennial gripe), the government imposed a 15-minute minimum wait time on its orders in an effort to protect the medallion cab companies.

Link roundup

1. BB:

The publicly funded, $35B cleanup of radioactive soil around Fukishima is staffed by homeless men recruited from Sendai subway stations. They are preferentially sent to the most radioactive zones, and work for less than minimum wage. Mobbed-up subcontractors confiscate as much as two thirds of their pay in "fees."

2. BBC:

One in five Irish homes is unoccupied.
If the country immediately used them to house every person on the social housing list, there would still be hundreds of thousands left over.

3. How did last night's college basketball 104-point blowout happen?

The NCAA's rules for what constitutes a legal opponent are shockingly brief: If a school offers a four-year degree and plays the majority of its games against U.S.-based college varsity teams, it counts as a legal opponent for a Division I basketball team.

4. Playing Fable 2 with the goal of marrying as many towncriers as possible.

Nightmare fuel.

Animal head stickers

Stickers designed by Hydro74 on sale here.

The tobacco hornworm

The tobacco hornworm is a caterpillar that eats tobacco leaves, and exhales nicotine through pores in its skin, creating "a toxic miasma that deters hungry spiders."

Pros and cons of having a silent mouse

Helpful review of the Nexus Silent Wired Mouse SM-8500.

Lego Arwing

Lego Arwing by Bruce Lowell.

Cards Against Humanity's ARG didn't go well

CAH:

On the first day of Holiday Bullshit, we announced that there was a puzzle hidden across the 12 Days. So far no one has solved it.
...
The puzzle requires multiple steps, one leading to the next.
As far as we know, no one has figured out the first step.

Best news bloopers 2013

Let's retire the Wilhelm scream and replace it with the one at 3:59.

Enterbay T-1000

Enterbay T-1000 available for preorder.

*Buy cheaper T-1000 toys at Amazon.

"The feeding structures of the amoeba Naegleria fowleri have a face-like appearance"

Brain-eating amoeba that looks like a clown face.

How St. Nicholas became Santa Claus

NatGeo looks at the slow process of a Greek saint, born in the year 280, becoming the patron saint of children, and ultimately Santa Claus:

In the better-known tale, three young girls are saved from a life of prostitution when young Bishop Nicholas secretly delivers three bags of gold to their indebted father, which can be used for their dowries. 

"The other story is not so well known now but was enormously well known in the Middle Ages," Bowler said. Nicholas entered an inn whose keeper had just murdered three boys and pickled their dismembered bodies in basement barrels. The bishop not only sensed the crime, but resurrected the victims as well. "That's one of the things that made him the patron saint of children."

Photo gallery of Rei by AX2 Studio.

Highlights from Future Cinema's screening of Ghostbusters

Video of highlights from Future Cinema's screening of Ghostbusters, including an in-theater battle against Slimer and Stay-Puft. Big photo gallery, too.

*Buy Janine Melnitz toys at Amazon.

Gone Home is getting an authorized JRPG demake

I got the go-ahead to continue on with my @GoneHomeGame JRPG demake. Here are the screens, if you haven't seen them. http://t.co/f83TAnT7c8
— Seth Macy (@sethmacy) December 23, 2013

Via.

Gif print by Mr. Div

Wired's nightmare fuel 2013 slideshow.

Jill Valentine

By Justin Chan.

"Former Eagles Cheerleader to Be Honored for Military Service in Afghanistan"

BR:

[Rachel] Washburn spent three seasons (2007-09) as a cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles before joining the military in 2010.... She’s since served two tours in Afghanistan as an Army intelligence officer in a special ops combat unit.

Documentary about Detroit-area firefighters battling a plague of burning buildings

The Verge:

Limited budgets and crumbling infrastructure have left Highland Park's fire department stretched thin. Abandoned buildings are burning with families inside.

Here's the featured fireman's personal Youtube channel.

"6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America"

From Cracked:

that's generally how the settling process went: The plague acted as a lead blocker for white European settlers, clearing the land of all the natives. The Europeans had superior weapons, but they also had superior guns when they tried to colonize China, India, Africa and basically every other region on the planet. When you picture Chinese or Indian or African people today, they're not white because those lands were already inhabited when the Europeans showed up. And so was America.

I've also been reading Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

Star Wars 1313 Concept Art

Star Wars 1313 Concept Art by Gustavo Mendonca.

On critics

Neil Gaiman:

Remember that if someone says there’s something wrong, they are probably right. When they tell you what they think is wrong, they’re probably wrong.

Conan Visits The American Girl Store

"The most influential people on Reddit in 2013"

DD:

2) The r/findbostonbombers moderators | The FBI’s most mettlesome

Boston was in lockdown. Three people had been killed and more than 260 injured in an attack near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. A manhunt unlike anything Americans had seen since Sept. 11, 2011 was underway. On Reddit, thousands of users were poring over photos and videos of the April 15 attacks—information they published to r/findbostonbombers.

Two days after the attack, using information gathered on Reddit, the New York Post ran a photo of two men it alleged were persons of interest in the case. The newspaper has a circulation of more than 500,000 and its website is one of the most visited in the U.S.. The newspaper, and Reddit’s sleuths, were wrong. The men had nothing to do with the bombing. After that misfire, redditors found a second top suspect: Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student who had been missing since March. He, likewise, was completely innocent.

In the end, r/findbostobombers was shut down. And Reddit issued an apology to the Tripathi family. “The Reddit staff and the millions of people on reddit around the world deeply regret that this happened,” general manager Erik Martin wrote.

One of the most influential people in Turkey is a "mysterious but extremely popular cleric who lives, strangely enough, in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania"

"Even in our world of weird political figures, Gülen stands out. Most people have never heard of him. He’s secretive, quiet, yet influential. And rich."

Nike's jacket for American Olympians features lenticular flair

Nike:

When the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes compete in Sochi this winter, they’ll celebrate victory in the latest cold weather innovations from Nike. The Nike Aeroloft 800 Summit Jacket and the Nike Flyknit Trainer Chukka FSB provide warmth with less weight in fresh and contemporary silhouettes. Soulful details, some only visible to the athlete, finish the look. 

Emblazoned “USA” over a lenticular fabric that shifts from blue to red, the Nike Aeroloft 800 Summit Jacket provides comfortable warmth without sacrificing ventilation.

Available in January.

Free Santa paper toy from Matt Hawkins

Papercraft Santa by Matt Hawkins available for download. And don't forget to support his kickstarter. $0.99 will get you a cool downloadable mask.

"Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire"

"the greatest benefits accrue to the most ruthless criminals"

Don't laugh

"A review of the benefits of laughter in patients by Oxford University has found that far from being the best medicine, it can lead to heart ruptures, asthma attacks and incontinence."

Alien vs. Predator by Mike Mignola

Cards Against Humanity sent out lumps of coal

Steamrolled

Picture/GIF/Video highlights thread (NFL Week 15, Sunday).

Kids Batman raincoat with removable cape

Kids Batman raincoat with removable cape available at Amazon. Via.

Ghost Miners

One of many details about an incredibly deep gold mine in Africa:

On the illegal, or "ghost," miners who steal from the Mponeng mine
They spend such a long time underground ... that their skin turns gray. They get this ghostly pallor and the reason they stay down for a long time is that it's very difficult to get in and out. Even though they [have] infiltrated [past] the mine's security, it's still not a cake walk.

A possible clue, in retrospect

Snowden regularly wore an Electronic Frontier Foundation anti-NSA hoodie to work.

Lacrosse names

Best male and female names of lacrosse players in 2014. (Including Ashmore Standing and Eggy Plastaras.)

Bombs in WW2

In WW2, "More tons of bombs were dropped on Rome than on all British cities combined."

Christmas 2019. pic.twitter.com/J7uwATFSBq
— Last Exit To Nowhere (@LASTEXITshirts) December 16, 2013

Merry Christmas from Last Exit to Nowhere.

Squeeze toy Weeping Angel

Squeeze toy Weeping Angel.

The NY Times tells you how to defeat face recognition software

Forget William Gibson's ugly t-shirt, The NY Times encourages you to have an ugly face:

My project, CV Dazzle, explores how fashion can be used as camouflage from face-detection technology, the first step in automated face recognition. The name is derived from a type of World War I naval camouflage called Dazzle, which used cubist-inspired designs to break apart the visual continuity of a battleship and conceal its orientation and size. Likewise, CV Dazzle uses avant-garde hairstyling and makeup designs to break apart the continuity of a face. 

... 

Using the tips above, create your own camouflaged look. 

Once you have created your own look, submit a photo of yourself. 

The looks will be tested using facial detection software and may be posted to nytimes.com/anti-face.

Of course, speaking of the NY Times and government spies:

ABC News and The New York Times have known since 2007 that Robert Levinson, the ex-FBI agent who was kidnapped in Iran, was not, as the U.S. government and his family claimed, an independent businessman: He was working for the CIA. The Times’ report today discloses this timeline; ABC News’ report does not—but a source at the network confirmed to Gawker that ABC reporters discovered the CIA connection in 2007 as well. At the request of the government and Levinson’s family, however, both outlets repeatedly stated, without any caveats, that Levinson was on a “business trip” when he was captured. A review of their coverage indicates that ABC News did so at least 7 times, and the Times at least 3 times.

Bill Murray's sound-a-like

"Bill Murray did the voice of Garfield (in the movie), whose voice was done by Lorenzo Music in the cartoon. Lorenzo Music did the voice of Murray's character in the Ghostbusters cartoon."

Relatedly, here's The Real Ghostbusters Christmas episode, written by J. Michael Straczynski. Via.



The Real Ghostbusters, Volume 1 is $11 for 30 episodes at Amazon.

Lord of the Rings-themed art show at Gallery Nucleus

A few of my favorites (that I haven't already posted) from this weekend's new Tolkien tribute show at Gallery Nucleus:


Danny Samuels




Dan Matutina




GH-05-T




Britni Brault

Mounted fox head

By Allison Reimold on sale at Etsy.

"The Haunted School"

Byron Eggenschwiler's contribution to the Goosebumps zine.

Deadman and Crow Plush Figure 2-pack

Ski Safari Adventure Time is now available for 99 cents

Ski Safari: Adventure Time is now available for 99 cents at iTunes.

Creative gift packaging

Best gift packaging ever.  Never to be topped.

(I take it back, this was better.)

"Obama's funeral selfie is a fitting end to my Tumblr – Selfies at Funerals"

TG:

I was the guy who, with a viral Tumblr called Selfies at Funerals, made "funeral selfie" one of the most noxious phrases of 2013.

I immediately posted the picture to my site and announced it would be the last: "Obama has taken a funeral selfie, so our work here is done."

From Fables: Fairest In All the Land

Spider with Batman's logo?

Pretty sure that's the batman sign? A harvestman glows under a UV blacklight. #UFBugs @PeruNature pic.twitter.com/AlQskQ7Zsj

— Cecilia / @RealScientists (@realscientists) December 11, 2013

Flood wall in Austria

Flood wall in Austria.

Andrelton Simmons - Defensive Highlights - 2013

"Compilation of amazing highlights from the Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons of the Atlanta Braves."

*Buy Andrelton Simmons bobbleheads at ebay.

The Seven Lady Godivas: Dr. Seuss’s Little-Known “Adult” Book of Nudes

NSFW scans.  (Available at Amazon.)

Nightmare fuel

Fungus infected fly! Nightwalks here = so many cool bugz. pic.twitter.com/bxLLvrOfg1

— Phil Torres (@phil_torres) December 10, 2013

Helicopter

NFL Week 14 GIF highlight threads from Sunday and Monday.

Stargirl

DC Bombshell Stargirl designed by Ant Lucia and sculpted by Tim Miller available for preorder here.