Darkness, une très amusant webcomic (or, more accurately, webbandesdesinee) written and drawn in 26 hours [via Mefi].
Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses. Also: The Kiss. Also: Next Time on Lonny. [Mefi again.]
Box Canvas Print of Paul Ross at Amazon. For the comments.
I only have an hour left to write and post something, and don’t even have any fresh links or photos I prepared earlier in reserve. Yesterday I unplugged the ethernet cable from my office computer to force myself to finish a pile of marking, and today I’ve been looking after small children.
Also, thanks to J’s canny O2-contract-renegotiating ways, I seem to have come into possession of an iPhone; she gave me her upgrade. So there went this evening on setting it up, and there go however many hours staring at its shiny screen.
On Friday after work, I joined a group of friends—two of whom work for Historic Scotland—for an after-hours tour of Trinity House in Leith, the headquarters of the Incorporation of Masters and Mariners and now a museum. The highlight of this fine Georgian pile was the Convening Room upstairs, lined with Raeburns and a huge painting of Vasco da Gama, and with a table covered in treasures. They kept us engrossed for an hour or more. Here are a few of my photos of them.
Just in case you were feeling sorry for yourself: A Letter to My Old Master. Great ending.
Two brilliant and related webcomics: Star Wars age 9 and Alien age 11 [via Mefi]. Makes me once again regret this moment of madness.
Apocalyptic video games and the UK riots.
Twitter’s new recruitment video.
The entertainment industry grew by 66% from 1998 to 2010.
Why History Needs Software Piracy. History also needs actual piracy, or the Caribbean would be far less interesting.
When I got back from the supermarket at the end of the day I noticed a tyre was down, so after dropping my son home I had to take the car to the nearest petrol station with an air pump (which not all of them seem to have in the UK; which surprises me, because it’s not like you can run an extension cord out into the street to power one of your own).
A 4WD was pulled up at it, and another car was parked behind that, so I joined the queue. After a while it became clear that the car in front of me was waiting for the car wash off to the left instead of the air pump, so that was good, I wouldn’t have long to go.
Read More · 
29 January 2012 · 
x1 · Journal
If you’ve ever looked at a monster truck tyre and thought, “I could totally climb inside that and roll around in it,” dream no more. Dynosphere Auto Runs on One Wheel (1932): “Speeds of thirty miles an hour, with two occupying the seat, have been comfortably attained.” [Via io9, which is actually starting to draw me into the Gawkersphere in a way that Lifehacker and Gizmodo hadn’t.]
“Research has long backed the therapeutic value of diary-keeping for teenage girls and boys. But according to a new study, when teenagers detail their woes onto a blog, the therapeutic value is even greater. Blogging, it seems, can be good for you.” Psychiatric validation at last.
January 2012