Link roundup

1. Bill Simmons:

Here's a fun story for you: A few weeks after the Clippers fired Mike Dunleavy last winter, someone called me out of the blue asking for help getting their vacant GM job. I had never talked to this person before in my life. I have no idea how he obtained my number. But that didn't stop him from lobbying me for the next 15 minutes as I said things like, "You don't understand, I only do things like that for Daryl Morey." (Just kidding. I did say, "Sorry, I just don't do things like that." Which is true.) Even better, this person was employed by another NBA team at the time. Now, assuming I helped him get the job -- and by the way, that's my favorite part of the story, that anyone thought the notoriously oblivious Clippers could be swayed by an online columnist -- what would I get in return? You guessed it … scoops! Breaking news!

2. The murder of a Palestinian official in Dubai by assassins captured on camera has lead to zero arrests. Via.

3. Free Star Wars digital jigsaw puzzles.

*Buy Super Spy by Matt Kindt at Amazon.

Puzzle Agent trailer (link roundup)

New trailer for Graham Annable's Puzzle Agent.

And a few more links:

1. Gawker interviewed someone who served in the military with South Carolina political superstar Alvin Greene.

2. It's a little sad that professional reporters think Washington politicians talk to them because "Maybe they wanna actually get to know us as people sometimes."

3. Thomas' English Muffins is owned by Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo. Via.

*Buy Annable's Book of Grickle at Amazon.

Lil Gangster (link roundup)

Miffy throwing signs. Relatedly, download a Miffy paper toy.

And a few more links:

1. Reporter posted police brutality video on Youtube after Fox affiliate refused to play it. Via.

2. Good name for a painting: warp point - endor moon.

3. Tiger gets a pie in the face?

*Previously: Pie in the Face: The Game.

*Buy Miffy toys at eBay.

Red Ring of Death/Jolly Roger (link roundup)

Red Ring of Death/Skull and Crossbones t-shirt by Jonah Block on sale today at Tee Fury.

And a few more links:

1. Now this is how you trash talk:

He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking.

You got have some guts to say that about a 7'2" boxer. Via.

2. Sports Illustrated says the media protected Ben Roethlisberger (and enabled him) so as to preserve their relationship with the Steelers.

3. CBS apparently loses a whole lot of money on the NCAA tournament every year.

*Previously: Pinwheel of death.

*Buy boxing posters at eBay.

Alien Queen prop (link roundup)

Alien Queen prop by Mandala Studios. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Ana Marie Cox calls Gawker "a soul-sucking, pleasureless attitude factory (maybe even a sweatshop)." Via.

2. ABC news essentially paid $200,000 for the legal defense of an accused child killer (and tried to keep it a secret). Via.

3. There's 158 billion gallons of water on the moon.

*Previously: Aliens/Space Invaders mashup.

*Buy Alien toys at the Big Bad Toy Store.

Boba Fett as a Wild West desperado (link roundup)

Wild West Boba Fett by Facu Samman. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Politico:

For the media, Palin is great at the box office. Among modern American political figures, she is second only to Barack Obama in generating clicks (for Web sites such as this one) and ratings (for the cable news networks hungering around the clock for fresh material).

Via.

2. Relatedly, Toyota is punishing ABC for is recent reporting by pulling ads. Via.

3. Make a prediction about Lost, win a prize (described at the bottom of the Lost summary).

*Previously: Plush Boba Fett.

*Buy Star Wars sketch cards at eBay.

Lego Donald Duck (link roundup)

Lego Donald Duck by Erik Eti Smit. See also: Microscale Lego wrecking ball takes out a building.

And a few more links:

1. Answer a trivia question and win a pack of Suckadelic Action Art Card (bottom of the post).

2. I don't know what Van Jones' job was as Obama's green jobs czar, but this AP article about Jones resigning for being exposed as a 9/11 Truther is pretty amusing for how pro-Jones/Obama it is.

3. Rough designs for Mandrill and Hippo gas masks.

*Previously: Donald Duck/VW Transformer.

*Buy mandrill toys at eBay.

Dinosaurs in suits pollute the Earth (link roundup)

Dinosaurs in suits pollute the Earth in an ad campaign by I.D.E.A.S. for The Climate Institute that someone for some reason doesn't want embedded.

And a few more links:

1. On the one hand, it's refreshing that the President can't simply snap his fingers and make such problems disappear. On the other hand, this is a sad statement on the law, political discourse, and rational thought: "law firm Perkins Coie has billed Obama's lobbying organization more than a million dollars while trying to suppress lawsuits over Obama's eligibility to be president." Via.

2. Daniel Lyons savages David Pogue (and his employer the NY Times) for writing reviews of Apple products, while making lots of money on the side writing Mac-user guides.

3. Consumer Reports says generic store brands aren't just pretty good, in many cases they taste better than the brand name. Via.

*Previously: Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur fossil poster.

*Buy wind-up dinosaurs at eBay.

Mars Attacks trading cards (link roundup)

Gallery of Mars Attacks trading cards. Infinitely more fun than the movie. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Robot 6 interviewed Thomas Hall, whose comic Robot 13 I recommended a few days ago. His description of how he and artist Daniel Bradford began collaborating is interesting.

2. When the Federal Bureau of Prisons wants to transfer inmates from one prison to another, say from Minnesota to California, it often puts them unsupervised on a Greyhound bus. 90,000 times in the last three years. Greyhound is never notified and has asked that the practice be stopped. Via.

3. Montgomery County High School in Georgia still has segregated proms. Sad story about the details, including what happened when Morgan Freeman offered to sponsor an integrated prom in Mississippi. Via.

4. Using an LA Times article about budget cuts as an example, Matt Welch does a good job in pointing out the ways reporters inject their own opinions into articles.

*At Toycutter: Mars Attacks custom action figure.

*Buy Mars Attacks toys at eBay.

Nesting Dolls (link roundup)

Nesting Dolls by Willard.

And a few more links:

1. Mom insists daughters, age 23 and 18, continue to have annual photo taken with mall santa (photo link). Via.

2. Worst reporting of the year awards. Including David Wright, who said on Nightline, "Today, the audacity of hope had its rendezvous with destiny....Obama is now an adopted son of Camelot. His candidacy blessed not just by the Lion of the Senate, patriarch of the clan, but by JFK’s daughter." Via.

3. Another study indicates sellers are better off selling the most popular stuff, rather than subscribing to the long tail theory. Via.

4. Charity recommendations.

*Previously: Nesting dolls made for Vogue.

*Buy nesting dolls at eBay.

Little Red Riding Hood iPhone wallpaper

Scott Thigpen has posted several iPhone and Android sized wallpapers.

Here's a few more links:

1. The happiest, fattest Pikachu fan you'll ever see.

2. The NFL is going to broadcast a game live in 3D (to select theaters) and has decided to start with the Raiders against the Chargers. Guess they assume it won't go very well and don't want any witnesses.

3. More evidence the LA Times long-harbored a disturbingly biased reporter.

4. Hacker recalls, at age of 9, figuring out how to improve his wingmen in the old X-Wing computer game. Via.

*Previously: Photo of an X-Wing sliding off an aircraft carrier.

*Buy Pikachu toys at eBay.

Prisoners use containers of mackerel as money, and other headlines of the day

1. Since cigarettes are banned, prisoners use containers of mackerel as money. Link.


2. Store security guards have sex in their office, are fired after being secretly videotaped by boss, and are now suing for invasion of privacy. Link.


3. Chris Matthews interviews daughter on tv, doesn't mention it's his daughter. Link.


4. Robber hires unsuspecting decoys via Craigslist. Link.

*See previous news headlines here.

*Buy Sandow Birk's paintings of California prisons at Amazon.

Bruce Schneier defends LifeLock

You've probably heard of LifeLock - - it's CEO Todd Davis gives out his social security number and claims no one can steal his identity. Believe it or not, so far no one has, although, as Schneier explains, the credit bureaus are trying their best to smear LifeLock.

Did you snooze through last month's media cause celebre (the Jena 6)?

Just weeks after some 20,000 demonstrators protested what they decried as unequal justice aimed at six black teenagers in the Louisiana town of Jena, controversy is growing over the accounting and disbursing of at least $500,000 donated to pay for the teenagers' legal defense.

Parents of the "Jena 6" teens have refused to publicly account for how they are spending a large portion of the cash, estimated at up to $250,000, that resides in a bank account they control.

Michael Baisden, a nationally syndicated black radio host who is leading a major fundraising drive on behalf of the Jena 6, has declined to reveal how much he has collected. Attorneys for the first defendant to go to trial, Mychal Bell, say they have yet to receive any money from him.

Meanwhile, photos and videos are circulating across the Internet that raise questions about how the donated money is being spent. One photo shows Robert Bailey, one of the Jena 6 defendants, smiling and posing with $100 bills stuffed in his mouth. Another shows defendants Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis modeling like rap stars at the Black Entertainment Television Hip-Hop music awards last month in Atlanta.

Link.

CNN edits WWE wrestler's answer to falsely make it seem that he admitted to using steroids

Link. Via.

Benazir Bhutto is unusually corrupt by Pakistani standards

Several smart correspondents have made the point that one of the other oddities of western press coverage of Benazir Bhutto is that you tend not to hear about how she's a huge crook. Corruption in a middle-income country, of course, is nothing new and Pakistan in general is not a paragon of good governance. Still, the best of my knowledge Bhutto and her husband stand out as unusually corrupt by Pakistani standards, which is precisely how she wound up ejected from power.

Read more.

"[Herbert] Matthews was the first American reporter to interview Fidel Castro..,

...and the last to recognize the man as a ruthless and slightly mad totalitarian murderer."

Read the rest of "Fidel's Favorite Propagandist"