Link roundup

1. Drew Margary:

My 4-year-old is batshit about Star Wars now and won't stop asking me questions about it. Only the questions make no fucking sense, so I can't answer them.

HER: Does Star Wars live in outer space?

ME: It's not a person. It's a movie. And it takes place in outer space.

HER: Why?

ME: Because outer space is way cool.

HER: Does Star Wars live in outer space?

ME: I JUST FUCKING ANSWERED THAT! EAT YOUR PRETZELS!

2. This can't be mentioned enough: U.S. senators, representatives and congressional staffers are permitted to engage in insider trading.

3. "He was a square-jawed Canadian Air Force officer with a brilliant future, a man entrusted with flying prime ministers and Queen Elizabeth II. On Monday, he was exposed as a serial killer with a shocking fetish for girls' panties that he documented in a trove of twisted photos of himself."

*Buy Star Wars sketch cards at eBay.

Link roundup

1. New Trading Places t-shirt on sale at Last Exit to Nowhere.

2. A professor in New York has been quoted as an expert in 150 articles in the NY Times by 78 separate authors over the past 20 years.

3. "Postdoc Vipul Bhrigu destroyed the experiments of a colleague in order to get ahead. It took a hidden camera to expose a surreptitious and malicious side of science."

*Buy science kits at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Chipotle says paying an ad company was a waste of money. (Their product is actually good, and thus they don't need to spend a lot of money on advertising.) Via.

2. It appears that the outline of Bill Gates's mugshot photo is the default photo in Outlook 2010. Via.

3. Jessica Alba's nude scene in Machete was computer generated.

4. Interactive map shows crime in Los Angeles. Via.

*Buy Sin City toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Bow and arrow used to send phones into Brazil jail. Via.

2. Venezuela is the murder capital of the world.

3. "While some complain it is unfair, district officials have decided that the ban on short skirts on girls does not apply to cheerleaders."

Link roundup

1. "Welfare payments to children of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County increased in July to $52 million, prompting renewed calls from one county supervisor to rein in public benefits to such families."

2. "A world-renowned Texas scientist specializing in infectious diseases who was once charged with smuggling dangerous samples of plague bacteria into the U.S. was questioned by authorities after a suspicious item found in his luggage caused a massive evacuation at Miami International Airport Thursday night."

3. Anyone who loved the old NES game 1942 will enjoy this 8Bit demake of Tom Clancy's HAWX 2. Via.

Link roundup

1. I highly, highly recommend watching the interactive film by Chris Milk for the Arcade Fire's The Wilderness Downtown on Chrome. It's a taste of the future of highly personalized entertainment experiences.

2. Almost time for the new season of Clone Wars. Get in the mood with Katie Cook's instructions for drawing the Zillo Beast.

3. Sounds like a good set up for a tv show: "Mafia kingpins from the former Soviet Union have moved into the French Riviera and are taking over with 'quasi-military' precision." Via.

*Buy Katie Cook sketch cards at eBay.

Link roundup

1. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but here's more confirmation that the massive surge in Old Spice sales was due to coupons, not the ad campaign.

2. Colombians are living out the plot of a bad horror movie:

Diego Ferney Jaramillo, 16, and Eibart Alejandro Ruiz Munoz, 17, were shot dead on Aug 15 while riding a motorcycle on the outskirts of the town of Puerto Asis.

Two days later, young people in the town received via Facebook a hitlist with 69 names on it, including those of the two killed. The teenagers on the list were advised to leave town or face death.

Norbey Alexander Vargas, 19, was shot dead three days after his name appeared on the list.

3. Time4Cat: a fun little time waster, kind of like if Frogger starred a cat. Via.

*Buy vintage advertising at eBay.

Link roundup

1. "Prosecutors have charged a Grand Forks teen with sexual assault, alleging he concocted a story to coerce a teenage girl to have sex with him — telling her that if she didn't, 'drug dealers' would hurt or possibly kill her, her family and him." Via.

2. The trapped Chilean miners "survived on half a glass of milk and two mouthfuls of canned tuna every 48 hours until supplies ran out." Although they're now being provided more food (and anti-depressants), they'll have to stay thin to be able to escape through the rescue shaft being drilled.

3. The story behind the Julian Assange sex charges.

*Buy condoms at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Map of nightclubs in Harlem in 1932. Via.

2. Art giveaway.

3. Gawker on the woman accusing Julian Assange of sex crimes.

4. Jezebel on photoshopped images of Jennifer Aniston.

*Buy vintage maps at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. John Salley talks about the time he and his teammates picked up prostitutes in Waikiki.

2. "Japan prides itself on having the world's longest life expectancy, but it is now struggling with a disturbing footnote to that statistic, revelations that hundreds listed as its oldest citizens are either long dead or haven't been heard from for decades." Via.

3. Tenacious Toys is selling the new Qees open box so you can pick the one you want.

Link roundup

1. George Lucas has apparently realized that telling great stories is hard, but creating 20 minute toy commercials is easy - - the live action dramatic Star Wars series is on hold. Via.

2. You can watch the full 12 minute Lost epilogue, but boy is it lousy. (Videogum, on the other hand, is consistently excellent.)

3. A man upset with service at Taco John's in North Dakota threw a snake into the drive-thru window.

*Buy Dharma Initiative collectibles at eBay.

Link roundup

1. TechCrunch calls out Gawker over ethics.

2. The Mattel toys from Comicon will go on sale 8/2.

3. Wild, wild testimony in the Karen Sypher/Rick Pitino sex/blackmail trial.

Link roundup

1. New toy-sized Splicer masks by Neca.

2. Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern used to be a homeless and regularly robbed people to support his drug habit.

3. "The California attorney general's office has decided against filing charges against any doctors involved in the care of Michael Jackson before he died."

*Buy Bioshock toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Tucker Stone summarizes the latest issue of The Economist (I'd missed these summaries).

2. Lawyers typically make either $160K a year or more like $50K a year. (Quite a gamble considering the cost of tuition.)

3. A man broke into a closed bar, reopened it using beers he'd bought at the store, and ran it for a few days, even granting media interviews.

*Buy home brewing kits at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Photos of queen Elizabeth looking bored during her recent trip to Canada.

2. Farcical battle between the District Attorney and Sheriff in Nye County, Nevada.

3. Map of the geek solar system. Via.

*Buy maps of the solar system at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Fascinating story by ESPN about Purple Drank, a codeine and gummi bear-laced drink popular in the South. (Former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell was arrested this week for possession of codeine.)

2. Nordstrom's initially denied and then admitted it "went too far" in photoshopping a model to make her look inhumanly thin. (Of course, the untouched photo makes the model look inhumanly thin.) Via.

3. Glen Greenwald on efforts to prevent reporters from reporting on the Gulf spill, the curious decisions the NY Times makes as to when to use the word torture, and Democrats calling Republicans unpatriotic for questioning strategy in Afghanistan.

*Buy political memorabilia collections at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Really angry cat drawings by Katie Cook.

2. The Los Angeles District Attorney filed charges against a man believed to be the Grim Sleeper, accused of killing 11 people over 10 years. The suspect had left DNA, and a check of that DNA led the police to an inmate too young to have committed some of the crimes. The inmate led the police to his father. And the police were able to match the suspect's DNA to a half-eaten piece of pizza that had the father's DNA on it.

3. Scavenger Hunt at Disneyland 9/26.

*Buy scavenger hunt kits at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Police officers in Southern California were simply investigating reported drug sales when they stumbled upon a body - - the suspect had preserved a woman's body with dry ice in a swank Newport Beach hotel room for a year.

2. Fascinating comic about homeopathy, especially discussing the claim that water has a memory. Via.

3. Bare knuckle fighting is much safer than boxing with boxing gloves on.

*Buy The Art and Aesthetics of Boxing at Amazon.

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.

Oswald the unemployed rabbit (link roundup)

Oswald the Unluck Rabbit via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. Toy Story outtakes, perhaps.

2. Amsterdam's mayor has ordered the police to use "decoy Jews" in an effort to catch anti-Semitic attackers. Via.

3. Recipe for Toasted Marshmallow Shake. (!)

*Previously: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit desktop wallpaper.

*Buy Oswald the Lucky Rabbit toys at eBay.