Wow, I just finished playing this fantastic little game. Check out that screenshot – and you go through like four more layers than it shows. Absolutely great.

Supermarket

Supermarket

Hilarious rundown of the items and characters in The Legend of Zelda, pointing out the obviously ridiculous nature of many of them. Fun reading.

The Spaniards that day sustained great loss and damage, having many of their shippes shot thorow and thorow, and they discharged likewise great store of ordnance against the English.

Sir Francis Drake’s ship was pierced with shot aboue forty times, and his very cabben was twice shot thorow, and about the conclusion of the fight the bed of a certaine gentleman lying weary thereupon, was taken quite from under him with the force of a bullet.

Likewise, as the Earle of Northumberland and Sir Charles Blunt were at dinner upon a time, the bullet of a demy-culvering brake thorow the middest of their cabben, touched their feet, and strooke downe two of the standers-by, with many such accidents befalling the English shippes, which it were tedious to rehearse.

ibid.

Wow, that’s interesting. Viewing the contributions to an open source project in accelerated real time, if that makes any sense. Click through and watch it in HD.

An interesting and very straightforward evaluation of faith and evidence when it comes to proving or disproving god. I think he undervalues the revelatory nature of some people’s faith (i.e. they have “evidence” that no one else saw, like god spoke to them), which for them is reason enough. It’s addressed, but it assumes that people have a desire to question their own processes. For the most part, that’s just not true.

But check out this freaky related video.

They were so well stored of biscuit, that for the space of halfe a yeere they might allow each person in the whole fleete halfe a quintall every moneth, whereof the whole summe amounteth unto a hundreth thousand quintals.

Likewise of wine they had 147,000 pipes, sufficient also for halfe a yeere’s expedition. Of bacon, 6500 quintals. Of cheese, 3000 quintals. Besides fish, rise, beanes, pease, oile, vinegar, &c.

ibid.

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The Fruit Bats – “Seaweed”
Mouthfuls

I love the guitar in this song. So calming. This is a great album, by the way, one of the few albums I have with a distinct twang to it. I’m okay with that.

Oh, this is excellent. The 9/12 rally, but in video form. Haven’t seen any of these yet. Hope there are more.

Good lord. Say what you will about the service, but that’s the ugliest logo Google’s ever made.

Their pieces of brazen ordinance were 1600, and of yron a 1000.

The bullets thereto belonging were 120,000.

Item of gun-poulder, 5600 quintals. Of matche, 1200 quintals. Of muskets and kaleivers, 7000. Of haleberts and partisans, 10,000.

Moreover they had great stores of canons, double-canons, culverings and field-pieces for land services.

ibid.

Norman Borlaug, major defender against world hunger, dies

Norman Borlaug, major defender against world hunger, dies

The galliasses were of such bignesse, that they contained within them chambers, chapels, turrets, pulpits, and other commodities of great houses. The galliasses were rowed with great oares, there being in eche one of them 300 slaves for the same purpose, and were able to do great service with the force of their ordinance. All these, together with the residue aforenamed, were furnished and beautified with trumphets, streamers, banners, warlike ensignes, and other such like ornaments.

ibid.

Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes”

Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes”

The galeons were 64 in number, being of an huge bignesse, and very flately built, being of marvelous force also, and so high that they resembled great castles, most fit to defend themselves and to withstand any assault, but in giving any other ships the encounter farr inferiour unto the English and Dutch ships, which can with great dexteritie wield and turne themselves at all assayes.

The upper worke of the saide galeons was of thicknesse and strength sufficient to beare off musket-shot. The lower worke and the timbers thereof were out of measures strong, being framed of plankes and ribs foure or five foote in thicknesse, insomuch that no bullets could pierce them but such as were discharged hard at hand, which afterward prooved true, for a great number of bullets were founde to sticke fast within the massie substance of those thicke plankes.

Great and well-pitched cables were twined about the masts of their shippes, to strengthen them against the battery of shot.

Edwin Creasy, The 15 Decisive Battles in the History of the World

Stephen Fry goes off eloquently and convincingly on why we do do not need a god to have beauty and awe and love and so on. Very good, in fact I think I’m going to listen to it again.

Charlie Brooker reviews “The X-Factor”

Charlie Brooker reviews “The X-Factor”

Now I cannot bear the barbarity of it; how can that unconscionable coachman talk so much bawdy to that lean horse? don’t you see, friend, the streets are so villainously narrow, that there is not room in all Paris to turn a wheel-barrow? In the grandest city of the whole world, it would not have been amiss, if they had been left a thought wider; nay were it only so much in every single street, as that a man might know (was it only for satisfaction) on which side of it he was walking.

Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

No offense to our artists (Bryce, did you do this?!) but this logo is a typography disaster. Every single element is a different style – not to mention the fact that the 50 and bubble don’t line up with TC correctly. Am I just oversensitive to these things?

The number of mariners in the saide fleete were above 8000, of slaves 2088, of souldiers 20,000 (besides noblemen and gentlemen voluntaries), of great cast pieces 2600. The foresaid ships were of an huge and incredible capacitie and receipt, for the whole fleete was large enough to containe the burthen of 60,000 tunnes.

Edwin Creasy, The 15 Decisive Battles in the History of the World

Battles this week

Quotes from The 15 Decisive Battles in the History of the World this week. Up first, the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British in 1588.

A different Picard facepalm, so you people on the internet can try a DIFFERENT ONE EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, COME ON!