Random stuff found whilst spelunking the depths of the internets:
- Before The Internet, Librarians Would ‘Answer Everything’ – And Still Do – This is interesting, but it reminded me of those What if Google Was a Person videos, and I have to imagine there have been some exasperated old timey librarians out there. For entirely different reasons that our current librarians are.
- The Creepy, Kitschy and Geeky Patches of US Spy Satellite Launches – My favorite is NROL-10, which is just, like, a teddy bear or something.
- The Life and Times of Carl, the World’s Greatest Stock Photo Model – Carl! Good to see you!
- How to be smarter about cultural outrage – I get that some people thrive on outrage, but I never find it productive myself. Not that I don’t get outraged, of course. Still, I tend to be decent at separating art from the artist. Not always, but I at least try…
But for our collective mental health and to forestall future cognitive dissonance, I’d like to make a suggestion. Let 2015 be the year we remember that you don’t have to be a good person to make good art; that the making of good art does not sanctify you as a person; and in fact, that the existence of a lot of excellent art depends for its inspiration on the unhappiness and imperfection of its creators. Let’s stop acting like we’re shocked, shocked when an artist we love is revealed to be a flawed human and acknowledge that in pursuit of something we love. And then let’s figure out what we want to do with that information, beyond simply reacting with outrage.
Forbearance, a radical concept?
- What if Bilbo’s magic sword started glowing when it was near an open wifi network? – Some people have too much time on their hands. In other news, I actually saw the latest Hobbit. It’s disjointed, bloated, and overlong, but I enjoyed it more than the first two Hobbit movies. But that’s a low bar. It’s like the valedictorian of summer school.
And that’s all for now. Proceed.