Welcome to the Wednesday Walk Around the Web, where we weave & wind through weblinks weekly. Hopefully you will find the links on offer amusing, interesting, or, occasionally, profound. Views expressed in the Wednesday Walk do not necessarily reflect those of anyone but the writer.
- Several peoples from around the world share a metaphysical foundation involving turtles holding up the world, because it’s the origin story that makes the most sense, of course. It’s turtles all the way down.
- Joe Buck has spent many, many World Series plugging whatever random shows Fox provided in any given year. I hope he actually tuned in for Harsh Realm.
- Via JT Rozzero: Jim Davis insists that, no, Jon Arbuckle didn’t drink a cup of dog semen. Why do creators insist on making their creations less fun and less interesting? Jim, Jimmy boy, James…the fans are trying to help here.
- In the long ago, the Lucky Charms mascot was a forgetful wizard, which certainly doesn’t indulge in as much ethnic stereotyping as the one we know better.
- This Week in Statistical Analysis: Are your D&D characters rare and artisinal or straight off the assembly line? (No judgment.)
- And now, death! Long have I been extraordinarily cynical about the idea of a “good death,” one lacking in the suddenness and uncertainty (and additional trauma borne therefrom) of so many people’s deaths and the grief processes those in their orbit are thrown into. But there are lots of different ways to die, some more evitable than others, and the ability to prepare oneself and one’s loved ones is disproportionately available along lines of economics and every other lever of social discrimination.
- This Week in Crowdfunding Initiatives: Sorry y’all, we can’t crowdfund porn on Patreon any more, since they insist on separating sex work from all other work. The statements from Patreon concentrate oddly on non-consensual porn when you’d expect them to be more general, though.
- You know what they say about piggyback rides: if you start doing one in public, suddenly you have to do enough for the whole class.
- This Week in Neural Net Processors, Learning Computers: Feed a neural network two decades of Slashdot headlines and watch the news flow. Most plausible: “Microsoft to Develop Programming Law.” Least plausible: “Supreme Court Can Be Lingeries.”
- Bubbloons are combination bubble/balloons, shaped by whatever stencil you care to make and push them through, and also now required for your next outdoor party.
- Sometimes I shy away from stories y’all probably already saw countless times on whatever social-networking platforms you choose to spend your life on, but this one is too good. The KFC Twitter account follows very few people — in fact, it only follows the Spice Girls and six people named Herb, or eleven Herbs and Spices.
- If I may offer a blessing, dear readers, may you open your email today to see some unexpected, retrospective absolution.
- If you want a picture of a nightmare used record shop, imagine Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream & Other Delights — forever.
- The story of efforts to fully adopt the metric system in the US is interesting, until it runs into the brick wall of nationalism. Sure, we buy our soda in liters, but bah gawd we have to buy our gas in gallons and our food in pounds or Uncle Sam will get the sads.
- This Week in Forced Relaxation: Breathe slowly, look at the lovely dog, and listen to “Can’t Help Falling In Love” played on a kalimba. Hopefully things don’t seem so bad now.
