Link roundup

1. It's 60% off posters at Zazzle with the code ZBDAYPOSTERS -- I recommend posters by Steve Thomas, Franco Brambilla, and Adam Koford.

2. Apparently there are 60,000 unsolved murders in Rio de Janeiro, and 24,000 victims haven't even been identified. Via.

3. An assertion that China will lose interest in the NBA with Yao Ming retiring. (It's certainly interesting that there's been no other Chinese players to make an impact in the NBA since him.) Via.

4. Portal to another world. And a similar photo from the same street.

5. Remastered children's books of questionable taste.

Link roundup

1. Reggie Bush has apparently decided not to turn over his Heisman trophy after all. (Good, let them explain some more why he shouldn't keep his trophy, but Cam Newton can.)

2. A primer on the NBA contract negotiations (it's pretty optimistic that a deal will get done).

3. Age of Conan is now free to play.

Link roundup

1. Chad Ford on the NBA draft:

The process is now both bigger and more impersonal. The more money teams spend, the more they believe they have a competitive advantage by hiding information from others. In 2001 I could get five GMs in a room to talk in detail about prospects (Jerry Krause excluded). Now … good luck. And the result? Despite all the innovations, teams are getting worse, not better, at making draft picks.

Between 1990 and 1999, 37 percent of all lottery picks turned out to be All-Stars. 31 percent were busts.

This decade, just 21 percent of all lottery picks have turned into All-Stars, while a whopping 42 percent are draft busts.

2. Team Fortress 2 is now free to play.

3. San Diego Padres pitcher Evan Scribner wearing a Yoda backpack. (Bottom of the page.)

Link roundup

1. Grantland's overview of the NBA teams making lottery picks, and guide to the expected lottery picks.

2. Design a new head for Deadmau5 contest.

3. Here's the 25% to 35% off items at Things From Another World for June. Lots of new single issues and collected editions of comics.

But where's the Bash Brothers poster?

Classic 80's athlete posters get their due at Salon 94. I'm strongly considering picking up one of the L.A. Law posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Top 10 NBA Draft Busts.

2. Creepy animated gif from this creepy Tumblr. Found mostly because I wanted to know what Edith Zimmerman looked like after reading this article she wrote about Chris Evans. (The first link is from her Tumblr.)

3. Penny Arcade on the fear of even mentioning hackers.

Image roundup

Bruins conquer Vancouver.



This should cost extra, right?



Tesla.

Bonus: These two were too disturbing to post.

Bonus #2: And to make up for those, here's a cat animated gif.

Been waiting to post this forever

Can't believe they gave up with a minute to go.

*Previously: LeBron abandoning Cleveland desktop wallpaper; video of LeBron losing at HORSE.

Link roundup

1. I certainly want to believe this is true:

Baseball was an important part of American life in 1887, though the rules were very different. "Batters" got their names from the wooden sticks they used to fend off rabid dogs while standing in the "batter's box."

2. And this sounds good, too:

One in four U.S. hackers is an FBI informer

3. "Battery made up of 144 potatoes powering 12 LED lights."

Link roundup

1. $20 sketches and the money goes to charity.

2. The Milwaukee Brewers drafted super agent Scott Boras's son in the 30th round. Why yes, Boras does represent the Brewers' best player.

3. TFAW is having a 60% off select graphic novels sale this week.

Link roundup

1. Lifehacker's top 10 privacy tricks. I especially like, the suggestion to use temporary credit cards to avoid repeat billing.

2. Bill Belichick gave a commencement speech saying that no championship team in the last decade in the four major sports had the league M.V.P. from that year on the roster. Not remotely accurate, but it sounded good.

3. Gizmodo's updated list of must have iPhone and Android apps.

Link roundup

1. Wild tales of cheating in Italian soccer. And this ballot is hilarious (if you like gallows humor).

2. 11 minutes of movie insults. (NSFW language.)

3. Gizmodo's tablet advice: "If you're not a nerd, you shouldn't buy an Android tablet."

*Buy iPads at eBay.

Link roundup

1. From an overview of Tyler Cowen's life:

In 2002 he published "Creative Destruction," which argues that globalization created much of the art and music we might consider "native." Reggae in Jamaica, for example, borrowed from commercial rhythm and blues broadcasts that drifted over the water from New Orleans and Miami. The fur trade and the metal knife helped create the totem poles of the Northwestern American Indians.

2. You've seen the flying military drones, now check out the ocean-going versions.

3. Charles Barkley says Nike asked him to stop being critical of LeBron James. Via.

Link roundup

1. Soviet Rocket Giraffe is a blast to play (think snowboarding, not flying).

2. Some fun baseball links: MLB owners ranked from best to worst (go Dodgers); Top 50 prospects of the draft era; "Who is Drew Butera, and is he hitting .122?"

3. i09 raves about The River:

The River is much more exciting, immersive, and cinematic than you'd expect from a "found footage" style show. It has a mythology that feels like it could become something for your coworkers to obsess over around the watercooler, but the mysteries aren't of the "endless hand-waving" variety. The makers of the pilot paid attention to the fundamentals: character development and great storytelling, and it's paid off.

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.

Link roundup

1. Gizmodo wants to hire a graffiti artist (and is actually inviting submissions by any type of artist). (It's a pay gig.)

2. Yet another great post by Jim Shooter about Marvel history, this time starring Bill Sienkiewicz. Click through to read about how he got his start at Marvel. Here's a taste:

Bill wasn’t invited to San Diego that year, but wanted to go. Bill was athletic—probably still is, I haven’t seen him for a while—and just the right size for the Spider-Man costume Marvel used for its character public appearance program (things like the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn).

I told Bill that if he’d wear the costume for a few events, Marvel would pay for the trip, all expenses. Save him significant dough. He agreed.

3. Nike estimates that LeBron James winning the NBA title could lead to a $4 billion bump in business in China. $4 billion approximates the entire NBA's revenues. Via.

Buffoonery turns free kick into a goal

Watch as two soccer players trip each other to distract the other team during a free kick. Via.

The worst baseball cap in history

The 1969 Seattle Pilots - - ESPN's pick for the worst baseball cap in history. There's ten more here.

Link roundup

1. From an extended discussion of Brink at RPS:

I was looking at the screenshots I’ve taken vs the screenshots we were sent for previews and things. And it’s just heartbreaking. A mess of text and cramped spaces, not these fantastic looking, exaggerated muscleguys in apple-crisp locales.

2. From Bill Simmons's portrait of Phil Jackson:

When I think of Phil Jackson, two guys come to mind: Young Phil and Old Phil. Young Phil was skinny with dark hair and a goofy mustache; he looked like he came from another era, like someone Larry Dallas would bring over to the Regal Beagle to meet Jack Tripper. Old Phil didn't look anything like Young Phil: white hair, a clean-shaven face, a heavier frame, and a body that was scattered in nine different directions. Still, Young Phil and Old Phil had one thing in common: They kept their cool at all times.

3. Vic Armstrong's World's Greatest Stuntman sounds great. i09 has an extended excerpt about the filming of Total Recall. For example:

Sharon Stone was funny. We all thought that Rachel Ticotin was going to be the big star, she was a fabulous actress, looked gorgeous and yet she went nowhere. Sharon Stone you couldn't drag into the gym, she just didn't want to train, didn't want to do anything, yet she became a superstar in Basic Instinct. Wendy was doubling Rachel and Donna Evans doubled Sharon and did all the kicks and everything else really, we mainly shot Sharon for close-ups. Though I must say she looked dynamite in those close-ups!

Gizmodo has an excerpt about Temple of Doom. The book is 34% off at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. A recipe for hardtack. (If you don't know what that is, you really should run out and buy a couple Patrick O'Brian novels.)

2. (New, specific) Assertions that FIFA demands massive bribes from potential host countries.

3. "Frank McCourt's motives and methods for potentially putting the Dodgers into bankruptcy."