Friday Links: May 18

I've been sitting on this one until I could read it. It's an article based on an interview with Joss Whedon. It talks about his history, why he had the credentials to do "The Avengers", and the projects that died or never happened. If nothing else, skim for his contribution to the Alien franchise and the Batman movie that never happened. [link]

Plans for how to make model airplanes from aluminum cans. [link]

A car with fold out wings. You know you've thought about how to make something like this. Maybe not since high school, but it's crossed your mind. [link]

Terry Gross from Fresh Air and an interview gone wrong. May seem a bit long, but stick with it.


The ampersand (&) used to be part of the alphabet. [link]

This paralyzed woman completed a marathon using robotic legs. Think Wallace and Grommet in "The Wrong Trousers". [link]

Black holes don't eat as much as they accrete. [link]

18 year old girl has body and mind of a toddler. [link]
What bothers me is that her mind hasn't developed. What does this mean about brain development? Is 18 years of experience not recorded? Why bother living forever if you can't remember or learn anything?

Here's some people having luck making mice live longer. [link]
They're making the mouse telomeres longer, but in the case of the girl in the previous article her telomeres are shortening normally. So there's something else that needs attention.

A Fallout fan film.


Movie posters if the movies were released decades earlier . [link]

Here is why that famous Van Halen concert tour rider said "no brown M&Ms" explained by a member of the band. [link]

How to make a costume Iron Man style arc reactor. [link]

Huh. The only unmarried American President was gay. Who would have guessed? [link]

Cockroaches wouldn't do as well during a nuclear war as one might think. [link]

Too much body spray can set off fire alarms. [link]

Data collected since the Kennedy administration shows  that Democrats are better job creators than Republicans. [link]
I was too young to remember anything about Carter other than that he existed, but everything I've seen from Reagan on puts this study firmly in the DUH! column. Jobs = Democrats. Debt = Republicans.

"We're Trekkies and We Know It" - I wasn't gonna post it, but then I laughed at 2:11.


An animation done to an explanation of how Pixar accidentally deleted Toy Story 2 late in production.

See also [link] and also [other link]

Can you say doomed to fail?
"We want to build a working Enterprise over the next 20 years." [link]
There. I knew you could do it.

Just some random visual gags from the Marvel Universe.


Some day we'll be able to upload ourselves into computers. It will probably go something like this.


Can we call these space stations something OTHER than inflatable? They're going to be enough like a Moon Bounce already. [link]

All new Cave Johnson dialog.


A fact overload about the cartoon "Animaniacs". [link]

The filming of Star Trek 2 has wrapped. Four months of filming and something like a year of special effects before it's released. Am I the only one who has a problem with this? [link]

Catnip PSAs. [link]

There's a myth debunking e-mail filter. Google needs to buy them and put it in their system. [link]

Didn't read it all, but here's an article about blood used in foods. [link]

Have your kids' drawings made into plushies. [link]

Old pictures of Earth. [link]

Gnarliest wave ever to be surfed. [link]

Mid-century garage doors. [link]

Remember that time they found bodies in Ben Franklin's basement? [link]

An interview with one of the leaders of Anonymous. [link]

Whatever happened to Flickr? Same thing that happened to Yahoo. Yahoo happened. [link]

A bunch of economists were asked, given $75 billion, how do you save the world? [link]

I don't check John Scalzi's site nearly as much as I did when I had an office. I've been relying on my other sources to point out particularly good posts. In this one he tries to explain how much easier straight white men have it than any demographic that varies from that. He does it by saying that in the game of life Straight White Male is the lowest difficulty setting. It contains links to follow-up posts. [link]

Why the Star Trek universe is secretly horrifying. [link]

The sandwich is 250 years old. [link]
In general, that is. The sandwich as a concept. Not a specific sandwich. Ok, maybe that one I saw for sale at the gas station... No, that was 180-190 at most.

Look! Camels that must get their hair cut by the same person as that guy I saw on the subway last week! [link]

The Immortal - a collection of life support machines that keep each other alive. [link]

Need some cheap maps? The USGS is having a sale! [link]

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior. [link]
The real question, are they unethical because they're rich or are they rich because they're unethical?

Some spiders hunt in packs. Don't try to sleep tonight. [link]

2 1/2 year old meets a robot dinosaur.


Recursive Drawing - watch the video before you start drawing. [link]