Friday Links, or Let’s Pretend Thursday Didn’t Happen
Today we’re going to have to depart from the standard Friday anecdote + link
fare, simply last night night was long and stupid and has injured my brain to the point where putting coherent sentences together is insanely difficult.
I had all sorts of ideas brewing: to tell you about how we used to get into “spear fights” as kids by throwing small trees (the spears) at each other, or how we thought it was smart one night to go to a local high school’s football field and fire bottle rockets at each other from opposite sets of bleachers in the dark. I considered telling you about my own Ferris Bueller’s Day Off story in which I fry a Porsche clutch. I even thought it would be good fare to tell you about the time a friend in 8th grade ate a cookie at lunch and decided to keep it in his mouth – completely chewed – for the rest of the afternoon.
But no, sorry. It nearly killed me to write that paragraph above. I literally think I’m sweating.
The good news is that the Internet has a strong constitution, and it wants to get up and show you all sorts of cool things about life, the universe, and Jeremy Roenick. So while I go look for a good vitamin B supplement, enjoy.
- So foremost: Jeremy Roenick has decided to retire from the NHL. While he’s never been a superstar in the pure sense, his status in the classic NHL 94 videogame – which is, in a word, godlike – can never be denied. Might his pop culture accomplishments be his legacy?
- Urban parking really isn’t free; in fact, spaces in many large cities cost between $10,000 and $50,000 — which is insane considering their function is to let an unused vehicle sit on them doing nothing all day. (via kottke)
- Josh Levin, writing for Slate in a week-long column series, asks how is America going to end? Fascinating reading.
- Here’s a great interactive graphic from the NY Times illustrating how people spend their time.
- The Gompertz law of human mortality is amazing. Essentially, it states that the chances of a person dying in any given year doubles every eight years. This means that as you get older, your chances of death increase exponentially. Morbid? No – just putting metrics to something that’s happening to everyone every day. (Too much information, indeed.)
- If you’re a TED fan (and if you’re not, you should be), here’s a rare glimpse behind the scenes of a TED talk.
- The seven vices of highly creative people. Number three cannot be more true.
Finally, I leave you with a video of some high speed robotic hands. This is mind-blowing. Rise of the machines, anyone?
