Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday Links!

The real Friday Links post, not the single-post version mistakenly put up earlier by Stephanie Assham-Dubious. It's the Running On Fumes Edition.

Let's lead off with zombies, because 50+ people sent in this link. Austin has endless road construction, and those mobile LED signs giving drivers information are everywhere. Every time I've driven past one, I've wondered if they could be hacked. Well, as it turns out, it's not that hard, and someone in Austin (not me, unfortunately) pulled off a great prank.

Aaron Daily sent in a link to a very rare clip of Don Knotts. He plays a weatherman without a forecast, and I really miss sketch comedy with simple premises like this.

Here's a medley of eHarmony skits on MAD TV, and they're outstanding.

From Yacine Salmi, a related article to the link I posted last week about an FBI agent penetrating an identity-theft ring. Wired has a long profile, who was both the don and the headmaster, so to speak.

From Eapen Leubner, a link to an update on Zimbabwe. The New York Times reports that the government is now allowing business to be done with U.S. dollars and bank notes.

From Chris Meadowcraft, a link to a flow chart of heavy metal band names.

From my boss Neile, a link to a stunning diagram that compares the market value of major banks now compared with eighteen months ago.

From Jonathan Arnold, a collection of unfortunately named road signs. Titty Ho and Penistone make an appearance, among others.

From Sirius, a link to a story about how a common soil mineral (birnessite) can degrade prions. Also, a link to research into how Triceratops used their horns.

From Steven Kreuch, a link to a video by Axis of Awesome, a comedy troupe who demonstrates, quite, clearly, that every hit song uses the same four chords.

From Julian Bell, a link to one of the strangest snake stories I've ever read.

From the Edwin Garcia Links Machine, a link to a photo collection over at Dark Roasted Blend titled You Used It For What? (most of these photos lack attribution).

From Jesse Leimkuehler, a link to a story about how traditional theories of planet formation are being questioned.

From John D'Angelo, a link to a stunning image of Centaurus A (click on the description below the image for a much larger version).

Finally, a mini-collection from Neatorama:
--a link to the story of Jason McElwain, an autistic kid who scored 20 points in 4 minutes of a high school basketball. This story is from several years ago, but the video will still make you tear up.
--an absolutely stunning collection of photographs titled London, From Above, At Night.
--in the ridiculously cute category, it's cat adopts a bunny.
--an entirely entertaining birthday cake error.
--finally, and this is fascinating, a story about Christopher Baker creating a visual map of 60,000 e-mails he sent and received over the last few years.

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