Link roundup

1. Want that cute guy to call you? Pick him up on a rickety bridge. Via.

2. New short story by Kelly Link. (I haven't read it yet, but I've liked everything else I've read of hers.) Via.

3. The winners of the inaugural Google Science Fair.

4. Always nice to be reminded that I'm not the only person who prefers email to Twitter and Facebook. (I love Google Reader, too.)

5. FYI, I'm continuing to experiment with Super Punch 2 at Tumblr and mostly post images there that I'm not also posting here.

Link roundup

1. Webcomic: Zero Suit Samus Googles herself for the first ... and last time. Via.

2. Three fairly lackluster reviews of SVK by Warren Ellis and BERG.

3. "There are two lessons here. The first is that Gatorade is a waste of money. If you really want to improve performance, gargle with something that actually tastes good, since it was the activation of reward areas that allowed the cyclists to exert maximum performance."

*Buy Metroid toys at eBay.

Epilepsy by Chris Buzelli

Epilepsy by Chris Buzelli for the cover of The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association:

The word epilepsy originates from the Greek word epilambanein, meaning someting that jumps upon you from the outside or a sudden attack. The sudden violent siezures historically has led to explanations of magic or religion. Some cultures saw epilepsy as a sacred illness (a gift or a punishment from the gods). Only 2,000 years after Aritotle understood that epilepsy was a brain disease, it is no longer surrounded by superstition. People living with epilepsy are still living with the unpredictable.

Chris has various prints and originals on sale here.

*Previously: Headache by Byron Eggenschwiler.

Headache

Byron Eggenschwiler posted a few new illustrations including this one for an article by Carl Zimmer for Discover Magazine about chronic pain and the pain networks of the brain.

Link roundup

1. Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, NY, 1970, Diane Arbus.

2. Penelope Trunk:

You are probably wondering if I think about Melissa having an affair with the Farmer.

I do. I think about it all the time.

As a preventive measure I tell the farmer that if he cheats on me, I’ll stay with him. Forever. I’ll never leave him. He’ll be stuck on the farm with me, in misery.

3. Neatorama, where I used to blog once upon a time, has a new line of zombie goods to help around the house (magnets, doorstops).

Link roundup

1. The LA Weekly's list of the best LA-related websites.

2. Space Paranoids arcade machine paper toy.

3. I'm rereading American Gods for the first time since it came out. I'm really enjoying it and can't imagine what I didn't like the first time. But anyway, this caught my attention:

"I read some book about brains," she said. "My roommate had it and she kept waving it around. It was like, how five thousand years ago the lobes of the brain fused and before that people thought when the right lobe of the brain said anything it was the voice of some god telling them what to do."

Link roundup

1. Here's a slideshow showing off the Find the Future book I've mentioned a few times before.

2. "In the Battlestar Galactica TV series, religious rituals often repeated the phrase, 'All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.' It was apparently comforting to imagine being part of a grand cycle of time. It seems less comforting to say 'Similar conflicts happen out there now in distant galaxies.' Why?"

3. "The parts of the South [of the USA] that were generally the richest in 1860 are today its poorest."

Lego anatomy model and colorful skulls

Lego anatomy model and colorful skulls by Clay Morrow. You can download building instructions for the skulls here. Via.

*Buy anatomy models at Amazon.

Illustration roundup

San Angeles Replicants t-shirt by John Sprengelmeyer on sale at Tee Fury.




Exploded human body illustration via the scientific illustration Tumblr.




I'd be more interested in L.A. Noire if it looked like this -- print by Derek Chatwood on sale here. Via.




Sunrise t-shirt by Dina Prasetyawan up for vote at Threadless.





Watch Pixar's Lee Unkrich clean up on Win, Lose, or Draw circa 1987. (7 and 10 minutes in.) Via.

Link roundup

1. I'm not saying I agree with her assertions, but it's fascinating to read how a defense attorney would go about defending Dominique Strass-Kahn.

2. A football player drafted in the seventh round by the Bills has lost 75 pounds:

The Tennessean has a story today about [Michael] Jasper’s journey from Bethel to the NFL and from a high of 448 pounds to a svelte 375, and it includes details like the fact that Bethel didn’t have a scale that would register higher than 400 pounds, so when Jasper needed to monitor his progress in trying to lose weight, he’d go to the McKenzie Feed & Grain Store.

3. Sounds like the start of a thriller:

An outbreak of smallpox was the farthest thing from Paul Levengood's mind when his staff at the Virginia Historical Society put together an exhibit of "bizarre bits" in the society's collection since its founding in 1831.

There was Confederate President Jefferson Davis's cigar, confiscated by Union troops. There was a fungus carving of Robert E. Lee on his horse Traveller and a wreath made of human hair.

Then someone mentioned a letter, handwritten and dated 1876, with what appeared to be a smallpox scab pinned inside—light brown, about the size of a pencil eraser, and crumbling.

Via.

Advertisement for Sarif Industries' body enhancements

Clever ad for Sarif Industries and its body enhancements. It's a promotion for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Via.

*Previously: Deus Ex action figures; Deus Ex viral site.

Link roundup

1. Bill James (who is an excellent writer, and who revolutionized the use of statistics in sports) has a new book about serial killers and crimefighting.

2. Check out how much muscle top NFL draft pick Von Miller put on while at Texas A&M (and remember, this was no pipsqueak in high school, he was recruited by a solid football school).

3. Kind of strange - - Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four are joining the Dark Horse Deluxe line of collectible statuettes.

Link roundup

1. FYI, you have to pay $150 to $495 to be nominated for a Webby award.

2. If you missed it, Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean said he "hated" Neil Gaiman and called him a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota." Neil Gaiman responds here. His response includes a link to Dean's contact page and encourages you to share your thoughts with Mr. Dean.

3. Here's an explanation for why eating asparagus makes your urine smell. Via.

Illustration roundup

Spidey's Second Act by Matt Dorfman for the NY Times.



Flyer for an upcoming show featuring McBess.



Clone Trooper/Krayt Dragon fan.



Denis Zilber.



"Albino Nautolan Mandalorian Girl" by Master Cyrus.

*Buy McBess Dunnys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Camouflaged cat animated gif. Via.

2. Alice in Wonderland painting by N.C. Winters.

3. Is exposure to radiation actually good for you?

*Buy Alice in Wonderland toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Hugh Jackman is supposed to bulk up even more for The Wolverine:

GB: Are you going to have to go back to that intense diet, eating whole chickens so you can get that muscle mass back up?

HJ: I’m on it right now, mate, already doing it. It’s 6,000 calories a day, it’s rough.

GB: How much you weighing?

HJ: Right now, I’m at 210.

GB: Wow, so you’re going to be bigger this time? Last time, you looked about, what, 190?

HJ: Yeah, right, I was 190, something like that. I don’t know how much I want to give away about it, but Darren said with the last one, ‘Hey you looked great, but you’re so tall that in those long shots you looked kind of like Clint Eastwood, and that’s not Wolverine.”

Via.

2. "Kids Sail Free on Seven-Night Alaska Cruises Aboard the Disney Wonder."

3. Tyler Weeks:

Weight loss advice is only good if someone listens to it. If you tell people they can't have pizza, they'll ignore you and keep living "fat and happy."

I'm telling you, I'm going to start a movement in this country: eat the foods you want, just less, and move around. You'll be healthy and happy as a clam.

Via.

Link roundup

1. Stunning incompetence prevented the police from stopping Jeffrey Dahmer sooner.

2. From one of Bill Simmons's readers:

(Baltimore Ravens kicker) Billy Cundiff has 38 touchbacks. That is insanely high. I didn't recall him having a particularly strong leg, so I looked over his past stats: 38 of 75 kickoffs for touchbacks (this year); 11 of 209 kickoffs for touchbacks (previous five seasons).

3. 25% off art at Bear and Bird.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

A Beginner's Guide to the Endocrine System

A Beginner's Guide to the Endocrine System by Raymond Biesinger on sale at Etsy.

*Buy anatomy models at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Comment and win a calendar.

2. "Interview with Scott Summit of Bespoke Innovations, creator of kick-ass prosthetics."

3. Shaking Man sculpture.

*Buy pin-up calendars at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. "Entire generations of crabs, worms and other deep-sea animals can survive for years on a single whale carcass."

2. A Song of Fire and Ice fan art.

3. Lisa Hanawalt illustrates popping a pimple, under ideal conditions.

*Buy A Game of Thrones at Amazon.