Link roundup

1. Hilarious: Lindsay Lohan might not have committed grand theft (stealing something worth more than $950) because although the price tag on the necklace was $2,500, it wasn't even worth half that much. Via.

2. And speaking of Valentine's Day-related scams, read about this one involving Groupon and FTD.

3. Finally, zombie and stalker-themed Valetines.

*But I'm sure the deals in Amazon's jewerly store are always good deals.

Link roundup

1. A look at Christopher Batty, head of sale for Gawker Media.

2. "A British businessman who bought the Segway company less than a year ago died after riding one of the scooters off a cliff and into a river near his Yorkshire estate." (Not from The Onion.)

3. Threadless's latest themed-competition is Tron.

*Buy Tron toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. A carpenters union hired non-union unemployed people to picket a company that's using non-union carpenters.

2. Funny bicycle anti-theft device.

3. Odd Michael Jackson painting.

*Buy Michael Jackson toys at eBay.

Cerberus the Cat (link roundup)

Three-headed cat via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. Fox tossing was a popular competitive blood sport in parts of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, which involved throwing live foxes and other animals high into the air. Via.

2. Al Gore has a new house with nine bathrooms.

3. Babar Lego CubeDude.

*Previously: Flaming skull Cerberus.

*Buy cerberus toys at eBay.

Vietnam wildlife illustrations (link roundup)

Decrepit tiger and captured animals - - part of a series of illustration of the wildlife of Vietnam by Brendan Wenzel.

And a few more links:

1. Using facepaint to create two faces on one head.

2. Podcast interview where former Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani offers blogging tips. (She gives the same advice you've heard before - - pick something you really like doing because you're going to have to put in a lot of hours, or be extraordinarily talented or lucky, to make any real money.)

3. Now John McCain says he never considered himself a maverick?

*Previously: Jim Coudal's blogging tips.

*Buy historical memorabilia at eBay.

Unintentionally funny Tiger Woods ads

Gilette Fusion. Via.



Accenture ad campaign based on Tiger Woods with the slogan "It's not a setback. It's a test." Via.



"Have you got the balls" Tiger Woods video game ad. Via.

*Buy Tiger Woods toys at eBay.

Soon to be recalled Tiger Woods ad (link roundup)

"Have you got the balls" Tiger Woods video game ad. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Team Fortress 2 propaganda contest. Via.

2. Men's Health intentionally reuses covers as a "branding strategy."

3. Tracy McGrady (who hasn't played this year) is on pace to be voted in as an All-Star starter, possibly because he plays for the Rockets, and the Chinese vote for Yao's teammates.

*Previously: Anime-style NBA heroes.

*Buy NBA bobbleheads at eBay.

Video of bears playing ice hockey (link roundup)

Video of bears playing ice hockey. Via.

And a few more links:

1. The Chronicle Herald reports that Peta held an event to promote a new device that "humanely" kills lobsters and invited lots of people. Unfortunately, the device broke. So Peta instead killed hundreds of lobsters in the traditional inhumane manner to satiate the people they'd invited. Via.

2. Team Fortress 2 cosplay.

3. A comic strip about the Kool-Aid mascot by Alan Moore and Peter Bagge? Via.

*Previously: Gloomy Bear Gauntlets.

*Buy hockey bobbleheads at eBay.

Pressure Peers (link roundup)

Doesn't make me want to buy The Economist, but I like the message of "Pressure Peers." Via.

And a few more links:

1. Jared Diamond tries to answer the question, "Where did the Japanese come from?"

2. You can download the mp3 of White Gold and Strawberry Summers singing "Almost As Beautiful As Me" here.

3. The NY Times reports that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke at a high school, but demanded that he get to edit any article about the appearance in the school newspaper. UPDATE: Kennedy says it was a misunderstanding and blames an underling.

*Previously: Japanese factory at night.

*Learn how to deal wth peer pressure with these books at Amazon.

The Haunted Mansion's Hatbox Ghost (link roundup)

The Haunted Mansion's Mansion's Hatbox Ghost - - only briefly a part of the actual Disneyland attraction, this ghost has been resurrected in a new sculpture by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily. It'll be auctioned off as part of the Haunted Mansion's 40th Anniversary event I mentioned previously. The details of the sculpture's creation are interesting.

And a few more links:

1. Lego crane truck. Via.

2. Man received a citizen of the year award in March. One month earlier, he was charged with selling methamphetamine to white supremacists. He's now pled guilty. Via.

3. Marvel Comics solicitations for November, 2009.

*Previously: Ghost cats on the prowl in Virginia.

*Buy Haunted Mansion collectibles at eBay.

Telekinesis (link roundup)

Photo of telekinesis in action. High-res here.

And a few more links:

1. Deadspin has been working to expose the identity of a beer thrower at a Cubs baseball game and used the phrase, "we've got a man's life to ruin."

2. "A Brazilian politician who fronts a popular television crime show is being investigated for allegedly ordering a series of executions in a bid to boost his ratings." Read on. Via these sites.

3. Shepard Fairey's profanity-laced response to a report that he had taken action to deter graffiti at his studio. Via.

*Previously: Frozen Beer-On-A-Stick Sells Like Hotcakes.

*Buy Phoenix toys at eBay.

Tear-off business card (link roundup)

Business card with tear off strip by Extreme Group.

And a few more links:

1. The Tokyo Film Festival, whose theme this year is green, won't show The Cove, which is about the annual dolphin slaughter in Japan. (Turns out the movie was produced by Fisher Stevens, who starred in two of my favorite guilty pleasures, an excellent episode of Columbo, and Hackers.)

2. Recently had a great time playing through the shooter game Let's Go Jungle! at Chuck E. Cheese with my son.

3. Elephant with a prosthetic leg. Via.

*Previously: Dean Kamen's prosthetic arm.

*Buy prosthetics at eBay.

Lego Imperial Hardsuit (link roundup)

Lego Imperial hardsuit by Lord Dane. See also: Command and Conquer inspired Lego walker. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Dolphin nursed back to health, released into the wild, and almost immediately killed by sharks. Via.

2. Live for free - - find a place to stay in The Caretaker Gazette. Via.

3. Jellyfish desktop wallpaper.

*Previously: A dolphin stars in the best album cover ever.

*Buy diving helmets at eBay.

Victorian ghostbuster (link roundup)

Victorian ghostbuster by Felipe Sobreiro.

And a few more links:

1. A city councilman in Iowa, who led the successful effort to ban pit bulls in Sioux City, is now fighting to prevent the ordered execution of his own dog, who mauled a neighbor. Via.

2. A local government urine tester was arrested in Houston for taking bribes. He's the "second county urine monitor to face bribery charges in connection with court-required urinalysis in two months." Via.

3. A Turkish tv show will feature a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, and a Buddhist monk competing to convert atheists. Via.

4. Horrifying story about a lab technician with hepatitis (the hospital knew she had it when they hired her), who was also a heroin user, and who "may have exposed thousands of Colorado patients to hepatitis C when she swapped her own dirty syringes for ones filled with a powerful narcotic." Via.

*Previously: Health Partners' new mascot is a walking vial of urine.

*Buy Ghostbusters toys at eBay.

Grand Theft Auto: Emerald City (link roundup)

Dorothy and her friends get the Tin Man a heart one way or another in this t-shirt by Juan Carlos Bueno. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Twilight Vampire Name Generator. I'm Jacob Stanley. Via.

2. Moneyball is about a young baseball general manager who figured out a way to use statistics to build a competitive baseball team with cheap no name players. (Good book.) Naturally, Moneyball the movie will star Brad Pitt and cost $60 million.

3. Win a Warhammer 40K miniature.

4. Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus reviewed.

*Previously: Custom map generator.

*Buy Wizard of Oz toys at eBay.

Horse dressed as Thor (link roundup)

Horse dressed as Thor equals Thorse.

And a few more links:

1. Sean "Cheeks" Galloway is inviting artists to design a card to be packaged with his new vinyl toy.

2. Wired keeps winning awards, but can't sell ads. I suspect their only chance to survive is to give up the ad-based model, raise the price, and put out a high-quality item - - something like the JJ Abrams issue you'd want to save.

3. Fire breaks out at Fire Service College in Gloucestershire, destroys at least eleven fire engines. Via.

4. Charmingly-ridiculous Medic robot.

*Previously: Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say "No" to Drugs.

*Buy Thor toys at eBay.

Star Wars sketch cards (link roundup)

Spencer Brinkerhoff III posted five sheets worth of Star Wars sketch cards.

And a few more links:

1. Delicious irony. Madoff victims include Eliot Spitzer (hey, I thought he was Wall Street's cop?) and Melvyn Weiss and David Bershad, former partners in the Milberg Weiss law firm. Weiss and Bershard are currently in prison and their firm has been vigorous in attempting to represent Madoff victims. (Who in many cases look less like innocent victims, the more information comes out.) Via.

2. Dreamworks is now desperately looking for cash.

3. Art Spiegelman co-created Garbage Pail Kids. Enterprising kids at my school used to sell them out of their lockers.

4. Seth Godin says, "Not one major new consumer brand built in the last five years was built on the back of advertising." I can't think of an example proving him wrong. Seems like progress to me.

*Previously: Order a personalized Garbage Pail Kids card.

*Buy Star Wars sketch cards at eBay.

Shepard Fairey's Soviet propaganda-inspired campaign for Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue hired Shepard Fairey and Cleon Peterson to create some materials for them, and they came up with Soviet propaganda-inspired imagery. Eric Wilson for the NY Times has a good line: "If you are brave enough to buy a $2,000 Prada handbag, you might rationalize that you are helping to stimulate the economy."

Via.

*Previously: Russian troops wore Adidas sneakers in Afghanistan.

*Buy Shepard Fairey posters at eBay.

He could have been the ultimate pirate... (link roundup)

Penultimate pirate found here. See also: To err is human. To arrrr is pirate.

1. New Little Big Planet creations, including a tank and moon lander.


2. Playa del Rey, a neighborhood between LAX and the ocean is largely abandoned. Occupied only by the El Segundo blue butterfly.


3. Romain Jerome's Titanic-DNA watch features metal taken from the Titanic.


4. U.S. anti-kidnapping expert kidnapped in Mexico. Here's his firm's website.

*Previously: Muji World Watch.

*Buy Swatches at eBay.

Irony photographed

Truck with flame decals, actually on fire. Photo found here.

Here's a few more links:

1. Animated gif of Warblade helping a cat down from a tree, perhaps? (Or it's the new Blue Beetle?)


2. Antique vampire hunting kit from the 1800s sells for $14,850? Via.


3. Obama logo cherry/blueberry pie. Via.


4. Michael Lewis writes about the latest Wall Street collapse:

Then came Meredith Whitney with news. Whitney was an obscure analyst of financial firms for Oppenheimer Securities who, on October 31, 2007, ceased to be obscure. On that day, she predicted that Citigroup had so mismanaged its affairs that it would need to slash its dividend or go bust. It’s never entirely clear on any given day what causes what in the stock market, but it was pretty obvious that on October 31, Meredith Whitney caused the market in financial stocks to crash. By the end of the trading day, a woman whom basically no one had ever heard of had shaved $369 billion off the value of financial firms in the market. Four days later, Citigroup’s C.E.O., Chuck Prince, resigned. In January, Citigroup slashed its dividend.

Read more of his latest article here. And you can buy his book Liar's Poker, which is about Wall Street in the 80's at Amazon. (My general rule is never buy a nonfiction book, unless it's written by Gladwell or Lewis.)

*Previously: A recently made "antique" vampire hunting kit.

*Buy Obama and McCain action figures at Amazon.