Bag o' Links, The Long Lost Edition, Part II and Conclusion. Post 'em or Delete 'em? Here goes..

BLOT: (21 Sep 2011 - 02:29:56 PM)

Bag o' Links, The Long Lost Edition, Part II and Conclusion. Post 'em or Delete 'em? Here goes..

Last week I started to post a long list of links I had accumulated but never used and cut myself off in the middle. Then, I got to looking and realized I probably had enough old links for at least two more posts of the aforelinked article left, and went: bugger that. Not only does it get rid of the purpose of most of the links being shared (they were largely bookmarked to be put into specific posts and then either those posts didn't use them or never got posted) but there is nothing quite so tedious online* as long link roundups without there being some central purpose. In other words, a writer linking to new reviews so fans that like to read reviews: ok. A person linking completely sundry miscellany: keep it tempered.

This week I bring you a promise, my massive backlog of 100+ links or gets one more chance: either they make it into this post (the aim is for about 20-30) or I delete them and move on. Fresh starts all around. As usual, I'll talk them up and try to make them sound interesting, or mock them. Or whichever hits my fancy.

• Apple Sued Over Allegations of Price Fixing Ebooks. In other news, we can now sue people for allegedly doing things they actually did.
• There is a movie coming about lesbian couple in Iran. The reason to watch for this one is because they chose to shoot it in the actual Iranian underground, which was a risk and it makes for an interesting look into something that neither our media nor the Iranian media cares to show us.
• Hinton Rowan Helper's The Impending Crisis of the South. An 1857 book (via Gutenberg) written by a [ex-pat?] Southerner about the issues with slavery. I've only glanced through it but it seems to counter the old myth that the slave-owning South was amazingly successful until after the Civil War and suggests, basically, that had slavery not been abolished the South would still have tanked after being left well behind industrially.
• A really massive, cool photograph of the nightsky that was harder to take than your average attempt to get a full moon on a digital camera.
• Or how about photographs from the Summer of 1990 featuring various shopping malls? Seriously fun to look at. Note: color schemes, store layouts, and general crowd behavior is practically unchanged. Even clothes aren't that different. About the only difference, outside of the indoor smoking, is the hair...and that's only a matter of time. Note: About six or so pictures down there is a guy who, assuming that's not Anthony Kiedis, was heavily influenced by him.
• SourceWatch, which seems to be a wiki that looks at who is really behind various organizations and such forth.
• Database Right (via Wiki). The right to index, etc articles and such. Something apparently not guaranteed in the US. Which is probably a good thing since it could mean that which database gets the right to certain material would then be a sole holder of such rights, and all that implies.
• Garfunkel and Oates on how hard it is to get a Weed Card [Warning: quirky cute music alert, should only be watched those who like quirky bubbly, or weed].
• Not one but two interviews on horror, literary horror getting a bad hat, and whether or not there is anti-intellectualism. First is Laird Barron, second is Robert Dunbar.
• Another link on writing, this is the Yog-Sothoth interview with Sandy Peterson on writing CoC.
• Last literary link for the moment: Boychick is Hipper Fratire.
• WAIT! One more: 10 Great PKD Stories Hollywood hasn't Destroyed Filmed Yet.
• And if you mostly glommed on to the phrase "anti-intellectual", above: What's So Bad About Smart? (the first bit). Including some bits about how elitism is considered a bad word and is thrown against NPR as an allegation. A bad word, of course, if you aren't talking about sports, finances, military might, box office returns, attractiveness, phat TV deals, or anything pretty much OTHER than than high-art and intellectualism.
• And if you just want to laugh: Dinner for One. From Wikipedia: an Explanation.
• Boobs and Satan? Not a movie produced by Corman? Link goes to (LGT, if you've ever seen that and wondered) a sold out book about Jayne Mansfield and the Church of Satan. Which I guess I was going to buy. NSFW pictures, by the way, but in the female form sort of way, not in the "OMG CHURCH OF SATAN" sort of way. I've been meaning to look up more on this topic. The topic of the book, not boobs. Well...you know.
• The 7 Most Unintentionally Creepy Places on the Internet.
• The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
• Binary System, one of my favorite Jazz groups, may be coming out with a new album. Maybe. I have no idea how old that page is, but I do notice that it's on Tripod.
• UAHuntsville attached scientist says climate models get energy balance wrong, make too hot forecasts of global warming.
• True story, when I went into Books-a-Million to ask for this man's book, The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt, the woman looked at me like I had asked for a book on raping kittens.
• A blog about Japan's abandoned places, with lots and lots of cool pictures and it brings out the urban explorer side of me that I never really get to indulge.
• Finally...deep breath...an article from April about hikkomori in Japan and how it complicated Quake recovery, including some background on the issue.

Ok, done. Now I'm off to delete about 70 links that I did not talk about. It is going to feel so good!

* Actually, the most tedious thing online is a blog entry writen on a free platform by someone who obviously has only a passing interest on a subject, clearly meant to trigger search hits so they can push advertisements on the right hand side. The fact that any decent information search—"Google: the best ways to clean gutters"—is more likely than not to bring back as many or more of these Trojan blogs is a good reason to quit the Internet. There, I said. We should quit the Internet.

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: September 2011