I felt a great disturbance in the Frat, as if millions of dudebros suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly...

I felt a great disturbance in the Frat, as if millions of dudebros suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.


http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/health/red-solo-cup-death-trnd/index.html

Leah Bloom we've been chumps! Why should we scrounge through lists when the power of the Internet does it for us?

Leah Bloom we've been chumps! Why should we scrounge through lists when the power of the Internet does it for us?


http://qz.com/869960/the-best-books-of-2016-list-you-get-when-you-combine-36-best-books-of-2016-lists/

Watership Down author Richard Adams dies aged 96 - BBC News

OK, at least he was in his nineties but still...fuck 2016


http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38446309

Ad Hoc Book Club Assemble!

Ad Hoc Book Club Assemble!

Leah Bloom and I are doing another ad hoc book club for January 2017. This time around, we're going to be reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It won a National Book Award and Oprah seemed to like it so...let's give it a go.

As usual, the "official" start date is Jan. 1st, but you can begin whenever and we'll all avoid discussing it too much until the 31st.

p.s. I don't know why Amazon thinks I'm a robot, but the link does work.
https://www.amazon.com/Underground-Railroad-National-Winner-Oprahs-ebook/dp/B01A4ATV0A/

If your relationship is strong enough, you won't need this, but in those early days...

If your relationship is strong enough, you won't need this, but in those early days...

Originally shared by God Emperor Lionel Lauer

How to fart in a shared bed - a helpful guide:
http://imgur.com/gallery/t6rbc

Oh and speaking of Star Wars.

Oh and speaking of Star Wars. Rogue One is amaaaaazing. I continue to be impressed by the current crop of Star Wars movies.

God damn you 2016. You've taken way too many, you don't get Princess Leia too.

Apparently people are "camping out" in IKEA stores.

Apparently people are "camping out" in IKEA stores. I think that's what they say they're doing when really, they just got lost a bit more than most people do and are too embarrassed to own up to it.




http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38390497

Paging Leah Bloom

Paging Leah Bloom


http://www.avclub.com/article/our-20-favorite-books-2016-247109

Star Wars Killed A Universe To Save The Galaxy

Sure, you may like Star Wars, but you probably don't like like it:


http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/star-wars-killed-a-universe-to-save-the-galaxy/

Solar Eclipse Ravenna – Total Solar Eclipse 2017 in Ravenna Nebraska

Hey!

Have you ever wanted to see a total eclipse of the sun?

Have you ever wanted to meet my folks?

Monday, August 21st, 2017 there will be a total eclipse that will be visible in the US. And my hometown of Ravenna, Nebraska will be right under the line of totality so you'll see the sun be completely swallowed up by the moon.

I'm going home to watch it and my folks are offering crash space to anyone coming along with me. My folks live just outside of town and should have an excellent view of the proceedings without the crowds and general hubbub of the viewing sites in town. If you don't want to go for just the eclipse, I can help plan out a larger vacation with other places to visit and things to do -- I'm thinking about going to the Black Hills and/or the Rockies.

It's likely that folks should get their plane tickets sooner rather than later and I'd like to have a decent headcount well in advance. So I'm making this general announcement that if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, get in touch with me before Jan. 30th.


http://solareclipseravenna.com/

Everything about this is pure gold including the red button:

Everything about this is pure gold including the red button:


http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-4

Cat Hulbert: How I got rich beating men at their own game - BBC News

You've got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em...


http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38103674

Title

My new comic book character: Mook. Just one guy but he can make multiple copies of himself. All the copies can share memories/experiences, but it's selective, so if one copy gets hit in the gut, none of the others grab their stomachs.

As the name implies, Mook hires himselves out as mooks to various big-name super-villains (or, I suppose, ethically-comfortable good-guy organizations). When you need an army of guys to get mowed down, call on Mook. Technically, they could use their shared experiences to better co-ordinate attacks, but frankly, Mook doesn't care.

It'd be even better if Mook only copied his mind/memories and could choose different (human) physical forms for the copies. Hydra, AIM, and SHIELD all employ the same guy hundreds of times over without knowing about it.

The Mooks all chip in for the benefits that no super-villain would ever cover and they support the ridiculously lavish lifestyle of several Mooks whose experiences are shared out to the members. You might have a "lifespan" of only a few days, but you'll have done more than one person could ever do in a lifetime.

Mook would make for a fascinating addition simply because their motivations are pretty orthogonal to any standard character's.

This is What Happens When Two Bamboo Trains Meet on the Bamboo Railway

Railroads have staying power. People have ingenuity (and poor risk-assessment skills).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJAczgfmHk

So I came across the following quote about the Marquis de Sade and thought it was too interesting not to share:

So I came across the following quote about the Marquis de Sade and thought it was too interesting not to share:

"But for all Sade's aristocratic indulgence of a peculiar whims and profligate spending on whips and whores, he is also one of the first major authors of what we might term modern bureaucratic literature. His writings are extraordinarily, pruriently concerned with acts that can be accomplished only by people working in groups who follow, in an orderly fashion, arbitrary rules and regulations. These secular constraints not only defy common sense but fly in the face of what we usually think of as basic respect for the sensations and lives of others. Thus another neologism: sadism. The writings of the Marquis de Sade describe dispassionate intimacy in the plural. In this sense, they foreshadow the social world of the contemporary office."

-- From Sodom, LLC by Lucy Ives

The rest of the essay draws out those comparisons in a delightful and unsettling way. The essay is found in the Fall 2016 issue of Lapham's Quarterly which remains an absolutely wonderful magazine and well worth checking out.

The headline pretty much says it all...

The headline pretty much says it all...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beaver-trashes-christmas-store_us_58404fa5e4b0c68e047f4972