Wednesday Walk Around the Web – 06/10/2015

the-kiss-of-death

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. Do you have a link you want to see featured in next week’s Walk? Email Glenn!

  • You might have seen this discussion prompt, asking you to choose between different superpowers. If not, take a second to think and choose. Then read a rather involved exploration of where that might lead you.
  • In “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the Devil must have learned how to play the violin at one point, right?
  • Via the inimitable Steve Wille: in Japan, a popular hot spring is closing because there were just too dang many orgies there. Sometimes, for the good of the natural world, we need to try to keep it in our pants.
  • Sometimes an elderly person just wants to back right on through the garage door. Take your chances when they present themselves.
  • Likewise, sometimes you just want to stick your bottle rocket under a sheet of ice.
  • Good night sardaukar, and good night gom jabbar. Good night Dune.
  • RIP Kalief Browder, killed by trauma suffered when he was imprisoned on Rikers for over one thousand days for no damn reason. RIP Izabel Laxamana, who killed herself after her father cut off her hair as punishment for something and posted the video online to humiliate her, just in case you didn’t realize that that’s child abuse.
  • In McKinney, Texas, someone called the cops because they didn’t like the fact that some black kids were at a pool party. “Too many,” according to the complaint. The cops, of course, responded by slamming the kids to the ground and threatening them with a gun, because children in swimsuits are just that dangerous. While it’s a little amazing that the rabid cops managed not to murder anyone, it was still so egregiously racist (part of the long history of racism at community swimming pools) that even another cop pointed it out. Cops have to be solvigilant because their jobs are so dangerous, right? Except a smaller percentage of cops are injured while on the job than nurses, or a host of other occupations.
  • So a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of bigots gathered in front of a mosque to protest the existence of Islam. Skip the parts of this article where the writers give the bigots a platform and scroll to the last seven paragraphs: the Muslims invited the crowd to join their evening prayer, and one person who accepted the invitation was shocked to discover that they’re regular ol’ human beings rather than cartoon supervillains.
  • And now a palate cleanser, courtesy of rock music and, as this is the internet, a cat.
  • Skyscrapers have to be built to withstand a lot of movement due to wind, but even more stringent than those requirements are those of people’s nervousness.
  • This Week in Blogging Projects: one person took it upon himself to read and review every book that made it to number one on the Publishers Weekly annual bestsellers list from 1913 to the present.
  • In Maryland, a two-hundred-year-old time capsule has been opened, as well as a hundred-year-old one.
  • Liam Neeson’s Taken speech, written by seven famous authors. The punchline is obvious, but worth it.
  • Dwayne Johnson wants to work with Hayley Atwell, and it is the official position of the Wednesday Walk that this should be made to occur. Of these suggestions, I’d say my favorites would be Jamie Bond starring Atwell and a new Freaky Friday.
  • Uwe Boll is ragequitting the film industry after failing in some crowdfunding campaigns. Perhaps he’s done enough.
  • In Finland, the cost of speeding tickets is tied to income, which is a fabulous idea I don’t remember hearing about before.
  • On the set of Mad Max: Fury Road (which was, incidentally, fucking incredible), the Furiosa stunt double and the Max stunt double fell in love while punching each other in the face.
  • A new Video Game Hall of Fame has begun with an inaugural class of Pong, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Pac-Man, World of Warcraft, and Doom.
  • Ryanair charges so much to correct an error in its flight bookings that it’s cheaper to legally change your name and get a new passport than to get Ryanair to put the right name on a ticket.
  • One woodworker designed a custom sawblade to make building drawers easier. It certainly looks like it makes a nice edge.
  • The Hawaiian pizza was invented by Sam Panopoulos, a Greek Canadian, in 1962, and for the great service we owe Mr. Panopoulos a debt of gratitude.