Link roundup

1. Fascinating explanations for why it's bad luck to walk under a ladder and why we bless people who sneeze(I'm going to assume this person knows what they're talking about.) Via.

2. Cake Wrecks is giving away prizes this month.

3. This last item is sort of a spoiler for All-Star Superman so...





Here's a long list of clues indicating that Lex Luthor is Leo Quintum. The overall argument is a good one, but this "clue" cracked me up:

Leo Quintum's wardrobe is "365 rainbow coats, all identical!" Luthor always did like to wear the same oufit. But note that the rainbow coats are Luthor's colors (green, purple, orange) plus Superman's colors (red, yellow, blue).

Via.

*Buy All-Star Superman toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Lincoln Logs were invented in 1916 by John L. Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright. They were named for Frank (his middle name was actually Lincoln), and based on the basement of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which Frank designed. Via these sites.

2. Cool, simple surface tension experiment.

3. Drop a Raymond Chandler plot in William Gibson's Neuromancer world, and you get Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. I enjoyed it enough to add the next two novels in the series to my wishlist. 526 pages of hard-boiled, vatgrown ninjas for $8 Amazon.

*Buy home science kits at Amazon.

Shakespeare invented the phrase, "knock knock, who's there?"

Learn something every day.

*Buy Shakespeare posters at Amazon.

Rocket ride (link roundup)

Rocket Ride by Bill Cotter. See also: Monk and monster.

And a few more links:

1. Einstein snowboard.

2. Franz Kafka invented the hard hat (he worked for an insurance company).

3. More pictures of the Alice in Wonderland book sent out to bloggers. Via.

*Previously: Four versions of Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

*Buy Alice in Wonderland toys at eBay.

Frankenstein Lego CubeDude (link roundup)

Frankenstein Lego CubeDude by Larry Lars.

And a few more links:

1. Superman helped defeat the KKK in the real world. Via.

2. A revisionist telling of The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf in Lego. Via.

3. Los Angeles has a new police chief. He's the current Police and Fire Motocross national champion and at least in some shots looks not totally unlike Magnum P.I.

*Previously: Dwight Howard as Superman sculpture.

*Buy Frankenstein posters at eBay.

Kurt Russell's oh so painful Star Wars audition (link roundup)

Kurt Russell tries out as Han Solo. Just another reminder that Lucas' genius lies in design. And far, far away from dialogue. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Ever wonder why Swedish meatballs were smaller than American meatballs?

2. The cynic in me says this is a clever way to get publicity for a book signing tour when you don't expect very many people to actually show up, but internet personality Gary Vaynerchuk is going to visit various airport bookstores to promote his new book.

3. If you lose all your iTunes purchases due to a crashed computer (and failed to make a backup, which is silly, it's really easy - - just drag a copy onto a flash drive or burn them), you can ask Apple nicely and they might help you out.

*Previously: Olive Garden's spaghetti with meatballs is comparable in calories to three Quarter Pounders.

*Buy Star Wars wind-up toys at eBay.

Pirate paper doll (link roundup)

Go here to download a pirate paper doll, created to promote a pop-up book called The Castaway Pirates (the download link is immediately above the pirate video). Via.

And a few more links:

1. I sure read a lot of people opining about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but almost no one identified someone who should have won. Well, here's a nomination for Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai.

2. In case you ever wondered - - the answer to the question of whether zero is odd or even.

3. Watched Wolverine on the plane and thought it was fine - - better than X2 (I've only seen the atrocious end of X3). Watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in the theater and was thrilled when, after an hour, my oldest asked to leave. Boy, how did that get even half decent reviews?

*Previously: Bruce Lee paper doll.

*Buy pirate toys at eBay.

Domo at 7-Eleven (link roundup)

Go here for a gallery of photos of Domo-themed packaging and goods at 7-Eleven. There's also a minisite. Via.

And a few more links:

1. "The Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a fleet of handmade boats and a crew of artists traveling the Adriatic Sea from Slovenia to Venice this May and June, 2009. Here's the dedicated site." Via.

2. You know the phrase "heard it through the grapevine?" Well, this is the grapevine. Via.

3. Microsoft's ads all seem to go viral for the wrong reasons, but if you do want to throw a Windows 7 party, you might be able to get some swag like this. Via.

*Previously: Domo/Jaws mashup.

*Buy Domo toys at Amazon.

Now this is a screenshot (link roundup)

Just enjoy this giant octopus-filled screenshot from upcoming Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The gameplay on display in this trailer looks awfully lackluster. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Were the British defeated in Iraq?

2. Before there was the internet, the hot craze was hunkerin? Via.

3. A government employee who went on the same Mexico trip as Obama became infected with swine flu and passed it to his family, and yet Obama's doctors "see no need to conduct any tests?"

4. Jose Canseco is going to fight a 7'2" Korean in a mixed martial arts fight?

*Previously: Samurai octopus.

*Buy samurai helmets at eBay.

Grand Theft Auto: Spider-Man (link roundup)

Grand Theft Auto: Spider-Man and GTA: Dark Knight. See also GTA: Tarzan. Relatedly, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS is the best game I've played for the DS. A+. Via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. Trivia from the movie Clue, including Jane Wiedlin of the GoGos played the Singing Telegram Girl.

2. A whirlpool of rocks.

3. How to create "fake" 3D in Photoshop. Via.

4. Law and Order billboard makes clever use of a light.

*Previously: Giant billboard with real cars attached.

*Buy Venom toys at eBay.

Pimp my Recognizer (link roundup)

A blinged-out Recognizer from Tron by David Nicholson. If you'd like the chance to buy it from Threadless, then vote by clicking on the voting widget:



And a few more links:

1. Over at the LA Times, Area 51 workers tell newly declassified tales. For example, test pilot Kenneth Collins had to eject from an experimental plane. Shortly after he landed, three civilians approached him in a pickup truck. The men had the plane's canopy in the truck and offered to drive him to the crash site. Collins told the men to stay away from the wreckage because it included nuclear material. The good samaritans were later tracked down and forced to sign security nondisclosures. The CIA had Collins take "truth serum" and afterward dumped the still groggy pilot at home. His wife thought he was drunk. Read more here, including the explanation for why people thought they were seeing flying saucers (they were more or less right). Via.

2. Bots4Tots teaches kids about robotics through hands-on instruction. You can help out by sponsoring a robot kit here. They're also asking for help in naming their new robot mascot. (I don't think this is part of the Terminator Salvation campaign, but it'd be cool if it was.)

3. The origin of the phrase "steal someone's thunder." Via.

4. Don't forget to enter my Threadless giveaway.

*Previously: Tron Recognizer desktop wallpaper.

*Buy Tron toys at eBay.

Leonard Nimoy in Mission: Impossible

You learn something new every day:

Following the cancellation of the original Star Trek series, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series Mission: Impossible, which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an IMF agent who was an ex-magician/ make-up expert, "The Great Paris." He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show. (As noted by Patrick White in The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier, Landau had been an early choice to play Spock.)

Thanks, Wikipedia.

Here's the opening from the fifth season of Mission: Impossible, featuring Nimoy and a young Sam Elliott (turns out he wasn't born with a mustache):



Via these sites.

*Previously: How to make sunglasses that make it impossible for someone to photograph your face.

*Mission: Impossible TV seasons are about $25 at Amazon.

I Love It When You Talk Retro

The new book I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime, and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech by Ralph Keyes about slang sounds (and looks) great. You can read an interview with Keyes here. One fun nugget from the interview:

I was surprised to find out that there were no "secret decoder rings." There were secret decoder pins, but no rings.

And the book is 34% off at Amazon.

There's also a blog at the NY Times devoted to interesting words and phrases. For example, bossnapping. Via.

*Previously: The origin of the word "scapegoat."

*Buy decoder pins at eBay.

Adorable Probe Droid (link roundup)

An adorable Probe Droid by Adam "Ape Lad" Koford.

And a few more links:

1. Huge law firm Latham & Watkins is laying off 190 lawyers and 250 support staff.

2. Everything you learned in school is wrong. Sugar doesn't make people hyper. Via.

3. How to report a feed scraper to Google.

4. Supposedly, "at least half the concession stands have been closed for every Clippers home game this season -- except when the Lakers or Celtics were the opponents."

*Previously: Galactus by Koford.

*Buy probe droids at eBay.

Trivia of the Day: The original Michael Myers mask was created from a William Shatner Halloween mask

Wikipedia.