Interesting Links for 20-5-2011

[andrewducker]

• Nothing Garfield - Garfield via Samuel Beckett
  (tags: garfield comic)
• German salesmen rewarded with meticulously organised orgy
  (tags: germany sex prostitution business)
• The CDC tells you how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse
  (tags: zombies cdc disease)
• Skype buy was a Microsoft tax dodge - finally, an explanation that makes sense!
  (tags: microsoft tax skype usa)
• Waterstones sells four times as many electronic books as hardbacks. Amazon over twice as many.
  (tags: ebooks books)
• Amputee demonstrates his new bionic hand. Jesus Christ, this is pretty damned awesome. How long until better than biology?
  (tags: technology video robot bionic cybernetics)
• How do The Monkees feel about their movie "Head"?
  (tags: movie monkees)
• Stephen Fry cast in The Hobbit
  (tags: thehobbit stephenfry)
• Neil Gaiman's Comments on the Guardian's Q&A on The Doctor's Wife.
  (tags: doctorwho neilgaiman)
• When your child is The Viking Expert...
  (tags: viking children funny)
• Man has hand amputated to be fitted with bionic limb. (Apparently he's skipping spurs to save on Essence loss)
  (tags: technology cybernetics TheFuture)
• 20 awesome ways to finish the same doodle
  (tags: art)
• Hero Cops Escort Cellphone Loudmouth Off Train. I wish this happened more.
  (tags: mobile_phones usa police)

Comments

Reinsurance

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Now that's a way to spice up the reinsurance business!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I imagine restoring sensation to the hand will be a major hurdle, but yes -- the future is ridiculously awesome.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

And I love the viking storyl.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there is any likelihood of a directors cut special extended version of the Doctors Wife surfacing.

[naath.livejournal.com]

can I have a prosthetic tail yet? (no? damn!)

Re: Reinsurance

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

"The women wore red and yellow wrist bands. One lot were hostesses, the others would fulfill your every wish."

Fair enough...

"There were also women with white wrist bands. They were reserved for board members and the very best sales reps."

I'm just trying to imagine how the female sales reps and board members felt about this...

Re: Reinsurance

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the gay bois....

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

The problem with Davy Jones' view on Head is it's simply not true. The Monkees' career was *already* over when it was made - their TV series had been cancelled, their last album at that point had 'only' gone to number three (as opposed to the number one of their previous four albums) and Peter Tork already wanted to get out of the band as quickly as possible (he'd only played on one track - Daydream Believer - on the previous album, and had bought out his contract within six months of the film being made).

In the two years from 1966 to 1968 the music industry had completely changed under the band's feet, and *nothing* they did at that point could have been a hit. And Head fit in with the direction *they* were trying to push in - Tork had invited Jimi Hendrix to be their support act, and had played on George Harrison's experimental Wonderwall album, Nesmith had invited Frank Zappa onto the show, and their 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee TV special featured people like Tim Buckley and Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger And The Trinity. The teenyboppers had already left them and Head was a calculated gamble to try to get them an audience with the growing hippie subculture instead.

And while it failed in the short term, in the long term that film probably did more to encourage continued interest in the band than anything else - I paid £50 to see them last week because I'm a huge fan, and I became a huge fan through watching Head. And I'm far from the only one.

(And when I saw them, the second half of the show was introduced by a long trailer for Head and they performed the entire soundtrack album, so they must know that it's overall been good for their career. I certainly can't imagine a tour where they performed the whole of Pool It! going so well...)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Stephen Fry cast in the Hobbit you say?

*frantically blocks everyone on facebook as nerds explode with nigh-sexual pleasure*

[andrewducker]

I'm not actually convinced that he can play a non-comedy character. He seems larger than life himself, and I'm worried that he'll overpower any character he has to convey.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

The two lord of the rings movies I saw had some fairly campy close to comedy acting/gurning on the part of, well, about half the cast to be honest.

And have you read the hobbit recently? It's a pretty camp semi-comedy at times anyway.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

You would be excessively cute with tail :)

[naath.livejournal.com]

wannawannawanna TAIL.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

*strokes* A tail may actually be easier than a hand, because a hand has to respond specifically to your nerve impulses, but a tail pretty much does its own thing: it should behave differently depending on emotional state, but within that just whip around automatically :)

[naath.livejournal.com]

heh, it should be PREHENSILE for opening doors with!

I think hands are probably more important. But once we have working hands and feet and so forth we should have working tails, and all sorts of other body parts humans don't generally come with.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

ROFL

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I think the (existing) bionic legs work in a similar way, based on your gait rather than your nerves, but I'm not sure. It ought to be possible to do something similar, even if it's been deprioritised :)