Friday Links: April 6

The movie police need to confiscate Star Wars from George Lucas before he can screw it up anymore.


No, George, we're not buying it. Just stop. We're not letting you hurt Star Wars anymore.


Here, go mess with Adam Sandler. His last movie won every single category at the Razzies. You can't possibly screw that up any worse. [link]

This guy. He could teach George a bit about story telling.


A collection of this year's online April Fools jokes. [link]

Excerpt from an oral history of Siskel and Ebert. It's got some great gags and insults. [link]

Excerpts from the idiot files of an HR person. [link]

Dinosaur penguin. [link]

8th graders NEED to fail this test. [link]

The GOP war on women. If you don't want to read the whole thing then jump to the last paragraph of page 4 and go from there. [link]

Awhile back I linked to an episode of "This American Life" where some guy talked about going to China and visiting the plants that make Apple products. Unfortunately, he made a lot of it up. So this whole episode of "This American Life" was dedicated to retracting that previous episode. [link]

On a lighter note, Rob Reid, who I'm told is like a modern Tom Lehrer, has an interesting TED analyzing the claims of the cost of video and music piracy.


Meanwhile, people in Hollywood are wondering why people are so opposed to letting them wreck the internet. [link]

Between Monty Python and Faulty Towers John Cleese was in a sketch comedy show called Les Sez. Here are some clips. [link]

Dee Snider of Twisted Sister has a new album of showtunes coming out. Listen to his take on "I Get a Kick Out of You" at the [link].

Yes, you can run a marathon without training. But you will regret it. [link]

If I were a painter this animation would inspire me to paint a picture of Earth that looked something like van Gogh's "Starry Night". [link]

Years ago I read about a guy who had a magnet implanted in his finger. Looks like this guy read the article too and got his own implant with the bonus of the magnet not disintegrating inside him. Here he talks about what the magnet gets him. [link]

Picture: Obama and Uhura. [link]

Final Fantasy is used on Doctor Who. It's super effective! [link]

Neil deGrasse Tyson complained about the star field at the end of Titanic and James Cameron fixed it. [link]

A tornado tossing around semi trailers in Texas. [link]

The 7 most unexpectedly awesome parties ever. [link]

In World War I the threat of wolves became so great that German and Russian forces stopped their fighting long enough to join forces against the wolves. [link]

Everybody sing the 404 song! [link]

A Mario/Portal hybrid that you can apparently download and play after you watch the video. I haven't tried the game yet. [link]

How to grow pineapple plants from pineapple tops. I did this one and let it grow for a couple of years. [link>]

Put a little library in your yard and let neighbors take and leave books as they choose. [link]

I'd like a bit more detail from this video about how to make super capacitors using a CD burner. [link]

Underwater river of hydrogen sulphide. [link]

Metal 100 times lighter than polystyrene. [link]

Rick Santorum hassled a kid who was reaching for a pink bowling ball. [link]
I'm thinking Rick isn't a big supporter of the recent movement against bullying.

Mitt Romney tells an "amusing" tale about laying people off. [link]

And, yes, Obama, too. This article is about the bill that allows the government to disappear people suspected of having terrorist connections. [link]

Animated wind map of the US. [link]

Elephant playing with a smart phone.


A bit about the new Mars rover. [link]