Link roundup

1. Cold case playing cards:

The playing card that set this chain of events in motion was produced as part of an experimental effort by Connecticut law enforcement agencies designed to generate leads in cold cases. Starting in 2010, the Department of Corrections has distributed thousands of these special decks to prisons throughout the state, with the hope that inmates will see them, experience a flash of recognition, and come forward with information.

2. "The TCJ 2015 Year-in-Review"

Lepore should have waited until the comic’s completion (which came in October 2015) before saying anything out loud about this comic book sold to the public on an installment basis at a cost of $3.99 per installment.

3. Firewatch wallpapers.

Space travel posters by NASA/JPL

Twelve posters available as high-res printable files.

Link roundup

1. "Reasons I Would Not Have Been Burned As A Witch In The Early Modern Era No Matter What I Would Like To Believe About Myself And Would Have In Fact Been Among The Witch-Burners"

2. "A Skeptic Infiltrates a Cruise for Conspiracy Theorists"

The people on the cruise tended to be there with a primary focus on one or two big issues. They were there to learn about vaccines. Or they were there to find out more about astrology. But they were interested in everything else. I didn’t talk to anybody who wasn’t willing to kind of go outside their comfort zone.

3. "Welcome to the Age of Robot Animals"

And while we’re not there yet, the very rapid rise of animal monitors and geotracking implants — in sharks, in hawks — does point the way to a possible near future in which the world’s wildlife is so intricately surveilled that we stop being able to reasonably refer to it as wildlife at all. (Maybe better not to mention that to ravens, who are, scientists have just discovered, quite capable of paranoia.)

And then there are all the ways we’ve set about transforming wildlife directly. There are the much-hyped GMO phytoplankton, for instance, designed to gobble up carbon in the ocean to help cool the planet. There are fish that go neon to send pollution alerts, and plants we’ve made to change color, too, when growing on top of land mines.

4. "Hackers used malware to penetrate the defenses of a Russian regional bank and move the ruble-dollar rate more than 15 percent in minutes, according to a Moscow-based cyber-security firm hired to investigate the attack."

Link roundup

1. "In a rare move by a Los Angeles elected official, a Los Angeles City Councilman on Friday hauled out boxes of staff memos and other private papers belonging to his predecessor and handed them over to reporters."

In releasing the documents, Ryu’s team stressed that they weren’t accusing LaBonge of any misdeeds.

2. "'It took us almost four years to get the [Game of Thrones] pilot made,'"

“literally, so much of it was reshot that a different director got credit.”

3. 2008 article: "Young women are growing increasingly frustrated with the fanatical support of Barack and gleeful bashing of Hillary."

Midair lightsaber strike on a Tie Fighter

And other Star Wars Battlefront stunts.

Link roundup

1. "An expansion project for a girls school in Brentwood has some residents up in arms and many asking for the renovation to be stopped."

2. "If you think Cam Newton’s postgame presser showed immaturity, what did you think of the several hours leading up to it, in which Newton dressed up like a cyborg and threw footballs at people to make the numbers go up on a giant glowing scoreboard? His actual job is to live out an eight-year-old’s dream birthday party on television"

3. Related, "The biggest, most wonderful moment at the end of a storied career, and [Peyton Manning]’s selling me shitty beer."

Link roundup

1. "Ink color, to [Sovereign Citizens], is crucial. They believe that black or blue ink signifies corporations; red ink signifies flesh and blood people."

They think red ink fingerprints are the highest form of ID. Some even file legal documents with their fingerprints stamped in blood.

2. Fake Rothko trial.

3. "Everyone Hates Martin Shkreli. Everyone Is Missing the Point"

Most of our Presidential candidates claim to disdain Washington politicians, but, on Thursday, Shkreli put that disdain into practice—and helped illustrate, to anyone paying attention, why it is so richly deserved. He is candid even when candor doesn’t pay. (Can there be any doubt that Hillary Clinton, after her own recent appearance before Gowdy and some of his colleagues, would have loved to send a tweet like Shkreli’s?) Last fall, Trump said that Shkreli “looks like a spoiled brat”; in fact, he is the son of a doorman, born to parents who emigrated from Albania. Look at him now! True, he has those indictments to worry about. But he is also a self-made celebrity, thanks to a business plan that makes it harder for us to ignore the incoherence and inefficiency of our medical industry. He rolls his eyes at members of Congress, he carries on thoughtful conversations with random Internet commenters, and, unlike most of our public figures, he may never learn the arts of pandering and grovelling.