Link roundup

1. The BBTS has plush Angry Birds and Thundercats figures available for preorder.

2. Animated gif of a pillow taking out a cat.

3. Watch as a Deinopis/Gladiator Spider weaves a net, hovers over the ground, and then thrusts the net down to catch a cricket. (Whatever creature you've seen in horror movies, nature has created something worse.)

Link roundup

1. Metropolis animated gif.

2. New tiger painting by Kristin Tercek.

3. Aquaman redesign contest.

*Buy Metropolis posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. "Boston emergency services debuted a specialized ambulance designed to carry obese patients on Tuesday, and the retrofitted vehicle was promptly needed on two calls, authorities said."

2. Dancing Pyro from Team Fortress 2 animated gif.

3. Adventure Time as an 8-Bit RPG.

*Previously: Printable Adventure Time Monopoly board.

*Buy Adventure Time Awesome Hats at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Fascinating look at the life of prowrestler Ravishing Rick Rude.

2. From a lengthy review of the game Darksiders, this meditation on the original Legend of Zelda game:

Zelda is not a game in the spirit of Adventure, even though it contains bats, swords, keys, castles, and, eventually, chickens. Its main deviation from Adventure is that the vast majority of the player participation part is in trying to discover what they are supposed to be doing, and where things are. Zelda, if anything, and possibly somewhat ironically, is the console’s best attempt at the Adventure genre, as beaten to death by Roberta Williams et al. You start on a screen, there is a hole. You navigate into the hole. You are given a thing. The thing is used to stab. Never are you given the kind of information you might logically need to progress, such as ‘someone sells a candle, it shoots the fire, senor leenk, perhaps some booshes will burn?’ No, that never happens. What you have, instead, is a world built with layer after layer of proudly standing contradictions. If a set of statues appear to be inert, then, eventually, on some screen, one of them will start to move if you stand near it. Presumably, when it moves, it reveals stairs, though, I can’t recall if every statue that came alive was guarding stairs or if it was just a couple of them, and therefore, the other stood as a kind of weak and ambiguous hint that, if you want a statue to move, it might. If, from that, you learn that, sometimes, stairs may be hiding under something that is not stairs, then you are smarter than me. The first time you had access to a bomb it seemed like an awkard weapon. How would you know that the 4th tile from the left on some clifface could be a door?

We now make assumptions about bombs and walls, and, granted, in those days, there was a lexicon of bizarre icons that we documented as we explored the NES. Balloons could be worth points, they could also be fragile. If you had a balloon, then you needed to protect it. If the enemy had a balloon, it was a weak point. If a balloon was unattended, you need to capture it. The entry for balloon in the encyclopedia of gaming was one of the easier, less obtuse examples, and it was still somewhat of a mystery. The entry for bomb took up page after page, and ranged from a specific key that opened a very particular place, to a dangerous thing not to be touched, to a tool that could backfire on you, to any number of other uses. In wrecking crew, bombs not only didn’t break anything, they interfered with your attempts to break things. Bombs could even be worth points and have no function at all. A bomb, really, could be anything. It’s not that the Zeldas bomb is internally inconsistent, just that, now, we know what bombs are for. They’re for feeding to triceratops, and widening cracks. A bomb, now, is defined to within an inch of its life in the mythology of the zelda context, which, as mentioned before, does not really exist.

3. Cool animated gif of the monolith from 2001.

*Buy 2001 posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. "Quote MIDWINTER for 10% off all Last Exit to Nowhere items. Offer ends 30th January 2010."

2. "The Best Animated Sports GIFs Of 2010: A Year Of Faceplants, Miracles, And Absolute Silliness." This devastating MMA move is my favorite. Via.

3. I sure hope there's footage of this somewhere - - a Snow White-themed debutante celebration for a 21 year old woman in New Orleans:

As the guests arrived, and after they dispatched their cars to valet parkers who sported red bowties and beanies, they were greeted by little people dressed as the fairy tale's dwarfs, as well as artificial snow falling from the trees.

Via.

*Buy Williams-Sonoma Kid's Parties: Creative ideas and recipes for making celebrations special at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. The iPod Touch is $20-$30 off depending on the model at Amazon.

2. "How to Verify if an Email Address Is Real or Fake."

3. Creepy Blade Runner animated gif.

*Buy Blade Runner posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Cardboard and velcro robots.

2. Male giant water bug with a back covered in eggs.

3. Tremendous collection of animated gifs from movies. Via.

*Buy velcro at Amazon.

Armored war dog animated gif

Paul Robertson has posted a bunch of new animated gifs. (Also, I figured out how to post animated gifs without using Photobucket.)

Link roundup

1. I don't think I've ever seen a professional football player give up on a play the way Albert Haynesworth does on this play. Via.

2. "From November 23 to December 7, the full text of Greg Bear’s HULL ZERO THREE will be available for free on the just-launched Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!" "The Starbucks Digital Network offers customers access to premium, free content on the in-store Wi-Fi network. Customers will be able to access the complete text of HULL ZERO THREE on their laptops, tablets, and many smart phones."

3. I read the same message twice yesterday - - we're entering an era of excellence where you will have to be unreasonably talented to stand out.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Motherbox wallpaper for the iPhone.

2. Some clever animated gifs at this site, like this one, or this one. Via.

3. Vertigo poster.

*Buy New Gods toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Cool gif from The Shining.

2. Hero stops runaway car by moving into position so it could rear-end him (and his passengers). Via.

3. Jonathan Holmes of Destructoid:

The deeper I get into the gaming industry, the more I see how much money publishers tend to waste on PR stunts and expensive parties. I don't know about "structural changes", but I definitely know unaccountability and excess when I see it.

Remember that the next time you read a video game review at a major site.

*Buy The Shining movie posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Paul Robertson posted more of his terrific Scott Pilgrim animated gifs.

2. If The National Enquirer looked like George Lois's classic covers for Esquire. Via.

3. Morrissey has said some racist stuff.

*Buy Scott Pilgrim toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Animated gif of a guy flipping across subway rails.

2. Gaiman's Sandman meets Inception's Saito.

3. Plush Shaun of the Dead.

*Buy Sandman toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Teri Hatcher posted unflattering photos of her wrinkly forehead to prove she hasn't had botox.

2. Paul Robertson posted a bunch of the adorable character designs he created for the Scott Pilgrim game.

3. Fark:

Proving he's the most awesome world leader ever, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally pilots a plane that's fighting the fires in Moscow.

4. Slate:

For the disastrous Russian heat wave has exposed a key failing of Russian society: The flow of information has stopped. There is not a single newspaper that even strives to be national in its coverage. The television is not only controlled by the Kremlin; it is made by the Kremlin for the Kremlin, and it is entirely unsuited to gathering or conveying actual information. Even the Russian blogosphere is bizarrely fragmented: Researchers who "mapped" it discovered that, unlike any other blogosphere in the world, it consists of many non-overlapping circles. People in different walks of life, different professions, and different parts of the country simply do not talk to one another. The same is true of political institutions: Since the Russian government effectively abolished representative democracy, canceling direct elections, there is no reason—and no real mechanism—for Moscow politicians to know what is going on in the vast country. Nor do governors need concern themselves with the lives and the disasters in their regions—they, too, are no longer elected but are appointed by the Kremlin.

As a result, no one knows where the fires are burning—unless they are burning right next to you. There is no map that would tell you whether your loved ones are safe or whether there is a fire along your planned travel route. Often, there is also no way to call for help.

*Buy propaganda posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Mel Gibson owns the movie rights to Fahrenheit 451.

2. Lots of photos of BP's Offshore Oil Strike board game.

3. Dancing raccoon animated gif.

*Buy Fahrenheit 451 posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Charges were dropped in the "Octopus Murders," which earned that name because there were so many theories about who committed the crimes.

2. Pikachu animated gif.

3. Destructoid is giving away an iPad.

*Previously: Pikachu paper toy.

*Buy Pikachu toys at eBay.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (link roundup)

Seal of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. UC Davis students teamed up to document and out a grifter frequenting the area.

2. Extremely passionate glam metal plays during the end credits for Transformers: War for Cybertron.

3. Animated gif of Kirk and Bones nodding endlessly.

*Previously: I have a coat of arms.

*Buy patches at Amazon.

Black Bear and Snake Charmer (link roundup)

Black Bear and Snake Charmer prints by Nora Aoyagi on sale at Etsy.

And a few more links:

1. Animated gif of Batman and some playful cats.

2. LA Gang Tours - - $65 gets you a tour through gang territory in LA. Via these sites.

3. Clever way to use Chatroulette to warn people about the dangers of STDs. Via.

*Previously: Snake strings t-shirt.

*Buy vintage advertising at eBay.

Whimsical teapots (link roundup)

Dodo and legged teapots - - two of the many teapots on sale here.

And a few more links:

1. Inner tube-sized donut.

2. Billowing sheet animated gif.

3. "Even hobo clowns need a friend" poster.

*Previously: Donut Valentine.

*Buy dodos at eBay.

Clever Twitter graphic (link roundup)

Clever graphics by Victor Huckabee (who is on Twitter).

And a few more links:

1. Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut was disappointed with the enthusiasm of Bucks fans. Instead of complaining, he buys 100 tickets each night and fills a section with boisterous fans.

2. Dancing RSS icon animated gif.

3. It's Wookiee Wednesday.

4. Burning death Valentine.

*Previously: Twitter tights.

*Buy Star Wars sketch cards at eBay.