Links!

* November 18th is International Science Fiction Reshelving Day.

Join us this November in a new and unique celebration of science fiction and fantasy literature. Many books from our fine genre are regularly placed in the wrong section of bookstores. This not only hides the books from us, but it prevents readers of those books from discovering the rich tradition to which they belong.

On November 18th that changes. We will go to bookstores around the world and move science fiction and fantasy books from wherever they might be to their proper place in the “Science Fiction” section. We hope that this quiet act of protest will raise awareness of this problem and inspire new readers to explore our thought-provoking genre.

Shouldn't the protest go the other way, moving SF and fantasy books to "Literature"? Also, isn't it weird to direct a "protest" like this so directly at Margaret Atwood of all people?

* What is causing our apocalypses? io9 reports.

* More on the irony that New York City may be America's most ecologically friendly place to live.

* NYRoB considers prison reform and publishes a rather fawning love letter to James Lovelock.

* Cheating referees in the NBA? I'm shocked, shocked!

* How to cheat in the New York City marathon.

* House didn't significantly improve on Dollhouse, and when DVR numbers are included may have actually underperformed it—but that's still not a good outcome for Dollhouse fans. House reruns are, after all, from Fox's perspective essentially free programming.

* American musicians want to know whose music was used as part of the torture regime at Guantánamo Bay. Colbert responds with some love for the Boss. It's probably too much to hope for, but I'd sort of love for a copyright infringement lawsuit to be the engame in all this.

I must say I thought Colbert was unusually on last night—perhaps he was just excited to talk to the Mountain Goats. Watch the whole episode here.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Road Ahead in Afghanistan - Lara Logan
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Formula 401: A Star Is Born
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Wednesday afternoon links 1!

* More bad news for Barack Obama as Stephen Colbert signs on to the birther movement.

* Meanwhile, Jon Stewart fights for our shared glorious homeland in a new Daily Show segment, "Hey, C'Mon That's Not ... Why Would You ...Whoa!"

* Kottke on flarf.

* New Line, fresh from screwing over Peter Jackson, is still trying to screw Tolkien's heirs. More at School Library Journal.

* The Big Picture presents: lightning!

* And Offworld has your post-apocalyptic Disneyland.

Friday morning and one week down!

* David Sedaris delivers a pizza.

* Stephen Colbert rightly demands that he be named worst person in the world. I certainly hope a Special Comment™ is forthcoming on this travesty.

* Confidential to climate change deniers: A headline that reads "Global Warming: Scientists' Best Predictions May Be Wrong" doesn't necessarily help your argument. See also. (Via Atrios.)

Another Tuesday night linkdump.

* Anthony Karen photographs the KKK for Life Magazine.

* A public records request to the offices of Mark Sanford has revealed actually existing media bias: conservatives outlets promising the governor a safe place to spin his story. Even Colbert got into the act, writing Sanford in character. (Via Steve Benen.)

* Neil sends along this video of four artists painting the same (digital) canvas at once, though both he and I agree it's somehow not quite as cool as it seems like it should be.

* Happy birthday, MetaFilter!

Hodgman at tonight's Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner: Part 1, Part 2. UPDATE: It's by no means a full Colbert, but there is a remarkable moment Colbert-like near the end:

You are clearly not exactly the person we hoped you would be. And perhaps it was wrong and impractical and unrealistic of us to lay such hopes upon you.

Still not sure whether the "Colbert" was pulled on Obama or on his disenchanted supporters. I think both.

Friday links 2.

* Cinéma vérité vérité: Trailer for an upcoming documentary about Arrested Development. Via Kottke.

* What liberal media: Why would the Washington Post fire one of its best reporters and columnists? Glenn Greewald is on the case
(here's more), while Steve Benen takes a look at the amazing balance in evidence on the Washington Post's editorial page post-Froomkin.

* Still casting about for ways to pacify the LGBT community without having to actually do anything, the Obama administration has announced it is "looking for ways" to include same-sex couples in the 2010 census. Pam at Pandagon has a more in-depth rundown.

* ThinkProgress reports 'Iranian soccer players reportedly suspended for wearing green wristbands.'

* TPM catches Colbert out of character.

Wednesday night links.

* Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers was on Colbert last night. The reporting Jaimee and I did for the Indy's green issue this year sadly convinced me that Rogers's "responsible CEO" schtick is 90% PR, and this clean-coal-centric interview didn't sway that opinion a bit.

* Meanwhile, health-insurance CEOs agree: they totally have the right to screw you out of coverage you paid for once you actually need it.

* A reality check on Twitter and the protests in Iran.

* A good sign for 2010: Richard Burr trails Generic Democrat by 3 points.

* Who could have predicted that the NSA's domestic surveillance program would be abused?

* Alice and Kev, homeless Sims. Via Kotaku.

* Darkseid without New Gods.

Late night shouldn't-have-taken-that-nap links.

* Stephen Colbert to guest-edit Newsweek. That's just weird.

* Yesterday marked the first night in my life where I had any real desire to see The Tonight Show; the Daily Beast has a few highlights. For my part I thought Conan did pretty good, despite some jackass fans who demonstrated that adoration and heckling meet again someplace on the other side. Someday I may even watch the Tonight Show again.

* But you don't have to take my word for it: Conan's got the coveted Obama endorsement now, too.

* Anthony Stewart Head is still teasing a Ripper spinoff.

* 'No Lifeguard on Duty': empty and abandoned motel pools.

* 75% of Americans now convinced terrorists have superpowers. Advantage: idiocracy.

* Production design for Pixar's Up.

* And ethanol still sucks.

Where in the world and when in time is Stephen Colbert going to be in the Persian Gulf? Next month, in Iraq, says Sarah Palin, who adds she's looking forward to your surprise party next week.

It's Tuesday and I'm feeling just a little bit feverish.

* It's come to this: they're going to remake Drop Dead Fred. Don't ask why.

* Oh, the wisdom of markets: Stephen Dunbar demonstrates that Peak Oil has "peaked" by citing the temporary crash in demand due to the financial crisis and speculative recovery technologies as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Crisis averted!

* Meanwhile, the climate is still totally screwed. See also: The 340 residents of Newtok, Alaska will soon be among the first “climate refugees” in the United States. What's their governor have to say about this?

* Superpoop messes with Texas.

* David Kurtz comes through with your daily dose of swine flu commentary, the first on the rhythm of pandemic and the second on the deep, pervasive rot throughout the global meat industry.

* Science has proved that conservatives don't get Stephen Colbert.

Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.

Whenever I hear about this sort of thing I'm just shocked. Not only is the parody on The Colbert Report completely unsubtle—it's so unsubtle I even wouldn't say it counts as satire—but it's not as even as if Colbert is trying to fool anyone. If you didn't get the point just from reading the sidebar during "The Word," he breaks character, both deliberately and undeliberately, all the freaking time. Multiple times every show. He's practically holding the audience's hand.

Let's hope "more likely" still represents a rather small part of the sample...

Just a pair of painfully funny Daily Show / Colbert clips from last night.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a District - New York's 25th - Dan Maffei
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Glenn Beck Watch: still an idiot.

BECK: The second thing is, is that -- you know, I was called -- who was it that called me today, "a populist"? I'm not a populist! I've been saying this stuff when it was unpopular! I've got news for you: It's still pretty unpopular!

But don't take my word for it; just ask Fox's own Shepard Smith.



Colbert's recent descent into his Beck-inspired "Doom Bunker" (1, 2) cannot go unremarked here. Jon Stewart zinged the guy last night, too, come to think of it. This is all really funny—but Steve Benen warns it's no laughing matter.

Links.

* 60,000-piece LEGO diorama of the Battle of Hoth. Outstanding.

* David Lynch Twitters.

* Top green moments from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, at HuffPo.

* Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proudly told the nation in 2004 that he joined the Republican Party because of his deep and abiding respect for Richard Nixon, apparently thought about bolting the party last year.

* And MetaFilter has your updates on quick fixes for global warming.

Friday night links while I wait for Jaimee to get home so I can watch some science fiction and turn my brain off.

* George Will is in the news this week for his latest stunningly dishonest column on climate change, which the Washington Post has perversely decided to stand behind. The statement from the paper's ombudsman is here.

* The EPA under the Obama administration will finally be able to take carbon seriously.

* Secure website authentification questions.

* Howard Machtinger looks back at his participation in the Weather Underground to acknowledge the group's failures. Via MeFi and Matt Yglesias.

While “New Morning” signaled the WU’s commitment to taking greater care after the accident to target property and not people, it did not acknowledge the WU’s own responsibility for the politics of the Townhouse collective.

WU leaders––then and since––failed to reckon candidly and directly with what it meant, politically and humanly, that core members of the organization had planned to use fragmentation bombs to kill attendees at a dance.

* The complete Pac-Man dossier: everything there is to know about the game, from ghost logic to how to play the kill screen. Via MeFi.

* Hard to believe we've all outlived Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I haven't watched the show in years, but it was formative to my sense of "funny" as a teenager. Here's Colbert saying goodbye the only way he knows how.

* Wither Burris? It doesn't look good for the man nobody wanted to be Senator anyway.

Speaking of things I find hilarious, this Colbert segment had me on the floor.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Leg Wrestling Rematch

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Jacob, knowing me better than any of my future selves, just sent me this link to an early Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons time travel story. Click the link or the image for the whole thing.



Aficionados may find some similarities with this classic Tek Jansen adventure from The Colbert Report.

Can The Daily Show survive Barack Obama? I think it can, but I worry for Colbert.

In addition to being very funny, this Colbert segment on Joe the Plumber and the new proliferation of X the Ys within McCain/Palin speeches was the moment I finally realized that the point of all this is just to remind people Barack Obama has a funny name.

I admit I can be a little slow on the uptake with stuff like this.

My unhealthy obsession with the presidential race has been crowding out the literature and pop culture blogging I normally do. Here's a linkdump to try and correct that balance:

* The Washington Post visits the Manhattan of Mad Men, c. 1962.

* How to land a 747.

* Don DeLillo (fake) blogs politics at the Onion, while the incredible José Saramago—whose excellent Blindess is both the best book I've read in months and a new motion picture out this Friday despite the fact that it is quite literally unfilmable—(real) blogs in Portuguese and Spanish. Via MeFi and Alex Greenberg.

* Salon looks at David Foster Wallace's sad last days, while Boston.com has a map of Infinite Jest.

* Survive the Outbreak: a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure zombie movie. Via MeFi. More zombie fun here.

* Grave sites of famous science fiction authors.

* Concept art from the upcoming Green Lantern movie. More at MeFi.

* Michael Moore's latest movie, Slacker Uprising, is available for free online. "This film, really isn't for anybody other than the choir," said Moore. "But that's because I believe the choir needs a song to sing every now and then." So the film's not very good, is that it? Via MeFi.

* The Evil League of Evil is hiring.

* Stephen Colbert is about to team up with Spider-Man.

* And Neanderthals loved sushi. Who doesn't?